A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW 
OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 


GEORGE  W.  CHILE 


UNIV.  OF  CALIF.  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 


A   MECHANISTIC   VIEW   OF   WAR 
AND    PEACE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN   FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LIMITED 

LONDON  •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  LTD. 

TORONTO 


A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW 
OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 


BY 

GEORGE   W.   CRILE 


EDITED    BY 

AMY   F.    ROWLAND 


ILLUSTRATED 


THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1915 

All  right i  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1915, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  October, 


J.  8.  Cashing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Oo. 
Norwood,  Mug.,  U.S.A. 


TO 

MARGARET 


2126123 


PREFACE 

THE  clinical  observation  of  the  behavior  of  man  in 
injury  and  disease,  under  anesthesia  and  the  influence 
of  drugs,  together  with  experimental  studies  of  certain 
problems  bearing  upon  human  relations,  have  led  me 
unconsciously  to  reach  the  conclusion  of  many  scien- 
tists that  man  and  other  animals  are  physico-chemical 
mechanisms. 

The  data  accumulated  during  many  years  of  study 
and  experimental  research  have  become  so  numerous 
and  are  so  well  explained  on  a  mechanistic  basis  that 
a  monograph  bearing  upon  this  subject  is  now  in  pro- 
cess of  publication. 

When,  therefore,  through  the  generosity  of  Samuel 
Mather,  Esq.,  the  opportunity  to  take  charge  of  a  hos- 
pital unit  of  the  American  Ambulance  in  France  was 
offered,  it  was  embraced  all  the  more  eagerly  since  thus 
it  became  possible  to  study  the  behavior  of  man  when 
under  the  influence  of  the  strongest  emotional  and 
physical  stress  —  man  at  war. 


viii  PREFACE 

The  substance  of  the  following  pages  was  written  in 
the  war  zone,  and,  at  the  invitation  of  President  Thwing, 
was  given  in  a  lecture  at  the  Western  Reserve  University. 

I  lay  no  claim  to  any  special  knowledge  of  govern- 
ment, of  philosophy,  of  psychology,  of  religion,  or  of 
the  science  of  war  —  nor  am  I  actuated  by  either  ethical 
or  political  motives.  I  offer  only  an  interpretation  of 
the  phenomena  presented  by  man  at  war,  from  the 
viewpoint  presented  in  the  forthcoming  volume,  — 
"Man  —  An  Adaptive  Mechanism." 

I  wish  to  express  my  indebtedness  to  H.  M.  Hanna, 
Esq.,  for  his  generous  contribution  for  laboratory  re- 
search, and  to  Professor  Tuffier,  Dr.  Alexis  Carrel,  Dr. 
Du  Bouchet,  and  Dr.  Gros,  who  gave  me  much  valuable 
information  and  the  opportunity  of  making  closer  obser- 
vations of  the  behavior  of  man  at  war  than  would  other- 
wise have  been  possible. 


GEORGE  W.  CRILE. 


CLEVELAND,  OHIO, 
August  13,  1915. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTKR  PAGE 

I.      INTRODUCTION    ........  i 

II.      THE  PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  ......  7 

III.  A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR   ....  45 

IV.  A   MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  GERMAN  KULTUR   ...  67 
V.      A   MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  THE  VIVISECTION  OF  BELGIUM  .  77 

VI.      EVOLUTION  TOWARD  PEACE  .          .          .          .          .  91 


ix 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


The  Establishment  of  Action  Patterns  of  War     .          .          .   Frontispiece 

PAGE 

"  The  burying  squad  has  marked  with   a  rude  cross  the  resting 
place  of  the  masters  in  Science,  Art,  and  Industry,  and  the 
daughters  of  the  land  have  the  scant  comfort  of  the  memory 
of  a  soldier's  death"       .....  facing        10 

Wounded  Soldiers  from  the  Trenches  in  Admitting  Room  of  the 

American  Ambulance      .....  firing        14 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Prolonged  Insomnia  on  Cere- 
bellum        .......  facing       20 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Prolonged  Insomnia  on  Ad- 
renals .......  facing        22 

Photomicrographs    showing     Effect     of    Prolonged     Insomnia     on 

Liver  .......  fifing       24 

Wounded  Soldier  from  the  Trenches  showing  Facies  of  Exhaus- 
tion   ........  facing       26 

Exhausted  Soldier  from  the  Trenches         .          .          .  "  28 

Shrapnel  Wound  of  Jaw          .....  "  28 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Extreme  Physical  Exertion  on 

Cerebellum  ......  facing       30 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Extreme  Physical  Exertion  on 

Adrenals      .......  facing       32 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Extreme  Physical  Exertion  on 

Liver  .......  facing       34 

Compound  Fracture  of  the  Arm  with  Serious  Infection  "  36 

Multiple  Wounds  caused  by  Hand  Grenade       .          .  "  36 

Frozen  Feet          .......  "  36 

Sergeant of  the  "  Restless  Fourth "  .          .  "  38 

xi 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

PACK 

The  Non-combatant  —  Mother  of  a  Wounded  Soldier            fafwg  3  8 
Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Extreme  Exhaustion  on  Cere- 
bellum of  Soldier  ......        to  follow  44 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Extreme  Exhaustion  on  Ad- 
renals of  Soldier    ......        to  follow  44 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Extreme  Exhaustion  on  Liver 

of  Soldier     .......        to  follow  44 

The  Phylogenetic  Origin  of  War     ....           facing  S2 

Giant  Gorilla  and  Soldier  in  Activity  illustrating  "A  Fling  Back  in 

Phylogeny "          ......           facing  64 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Extreme   Emotion  on  Cere- 
bellum        .......           facing  80 

Photomicrographs   showing   Effect   of  Extreme    Emotion   on   Ad- 
renals          .......           facing  82 

Photomicrographs  showing  Effect  of  Extreme  Emotion  on  Liver  "  84 
A  Belgian  Refugee  —  Ten-year-old  Boy   ...               "86 

A  Belgian  Refugee        ......               "  86 

Family  of  Refugees  at  San  Sulpice,  Paris   .          .          .               "  88 

The  Charge         . "  98 

The  Call  to  Arms  and  the  End  Result      .          .          .               "  100 

The^  Glory  vs.  the  Reality  of  War  .          .          .          .               "  102 

The  Soldier's  Burial "  104 


CHAPTER    I 

INTRODUCTION 


A    MECHANISTIC    VIEW    OF 
WAR    AND    PEACE 

CHAPTER   I 
INTRODUCTION 

As  surgeon  in  charge  of  the  Lakeside  Unit  of 
Western  Reserve  University  in  the  service  of  the 
American  Ambulance  at  Neuilly-sur-Seine  I  had 
the  opportunity  of  obtaining  the  viewpoints  of  men 
who  had  participated  in  the  present  combat. 

Visiting  the  front,  I  observed  the  behavior  of  men 
in  the  act  of  making  war.  I  studied  non-comba- 
tants at  home,  refugees,  and  prisoners  of  war,  and 
sought  similar  information  from  reliable  sources  as 
to  other  nations  at  war. 

As  I  reflected  upon  the  intensive  application  of 
man  to  war  in  cold,  rain,  and  mud  ;  in  rivers,  canals, 
and  lakes  ;  under  ground,  in  the  air,  and  under  the 
sea ;  infected  with  vermin,  covered  with  scabs, 
adding  the  stench  of  his  own  filthy  body  to  that 


4        A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

of  his  decomposing  comrades;  hairy,  begrimed, 
bedraggled,  yet  with  unflagging  zeal  striving  eagerly 
to  kill  his  fellows;  and  as  I  felt  within  myself 
the  mystical  urge  of  the  sound  of  great  cannon 
I  realized  that  war  is  a  normal  state  of  man. 

In  taking  into  account  the  training  and  the  edu- 
cation of  the  men  now  at  war  it  is  obvious  that 
although  this  war  was  precipitated  by  certain  na- 
tions, its  fundamental  cause  is  to  be  found  in  no 
one  nation  alone ;  for  every  nation,  race,  or  tribe  has 
waged  war.  The  impulse  to  war  is  stronger  than 
the  desire  to  live ;  it  is  stronger  than  the  fear  of 
death.  Those  who  believe  that  man  is  a  mechan- 
ism evolved  through  an  endless  struggle  for  existence, 
and  that  the  struggle  among  men  differs  only  in  kind 
and  not  in  principle  from  the  struggle  among  other 
animals  or  from  the  equally  fierce  struggle  among 
plants,  will  turn  for  the  explanation  of  war  among 
men  to  the  principles  of  evolution.  In  this  volume 
an  attempt  is  made  to  see  to  what  extent  the  cause 
and  the  phenomena  of  war  may  be  explained  on 
this  conception.  The  inner  processes  accompany- 
ing the  gross  behavior  of  man  at  war  I  have  inter- 
preted in  the  light  of  researches  long  prosecuted  in 
my  laboratory,  and  I  have  attempted  to  correlate 


INTRODUCTION  5 

these  apparently  widely  separated  protocols  into  a 
working  hypothesis. 

I  do  not  believe  that  war  can  be  eliminated  from 
the  web  of  life.  It  is  not  certain  that  its  complete 
elimination  would  be  an  ultimate  advantage  to  man. 
My  aim  is  to  make  an  analysis  of  war ;  to  point  out 
the  probability  that  these  phenomena  are  explain- 
able on  a  mechanistic  basis  ;  to  seek  its  origin  and 
inherent  force  in  man  ;  and  to  suggest  means  by 
which  the  very  forces  which  have  made  cycles  of 
war  inevitable  may  be  utilized  for  the  evolution  of 
longer  and  more  secure  cycles  of  peace. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR 


CHAPTER  II 
THE  PHENOMENA  OF  WAR 

Integration  of  the  Community  and  the  Individual 
for  War 

THE  inhabitants  of  the  warring  countries  are  di- 
vided into  three  classes  —  those  who  are  killing 
man  ;  those  who  are  saving  man  ;  and  those  who, 
inactive,  wait  at  home  for  the  return  from  the 
front.  Railways  are  hauling  food,  ammunition, 
and  men  to  the  battle  line,  and  hauling  back  the 
wounded.  Factories  are  turning  out  uniforms  and 
guns,  powder  and  shot.  Telegraphs  and  telephones 
speak  only  of  war.  The  printing  press  describes 
battles,  and  records  the  names  of  the  dead.  Hotels 
and  schools  are  hospitals,  and  parks  are  drilling 
grounds.  Iron  and  steel,  copper  and  lead,  are 
implements  of  injury  and  death ;  while  the  uni- 
versities and  scientific  laboratories  are  deserted 
sanctuaries.  Wealth  and  station,  titles  and  honors, 
are  lost.  Man,  stripped  of  his  trappings  of  civi- 
lization, has  reverted  to  a  common  brute  level. 

9 


10      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

At  the  different  military  hospitals,  bankers,  busi- 
ness men,  artists,  and  noblemen  are  orderlies ;  col- 
lege men,  great  hunters,  and  soldiers  of  fortune 
drive  ambulances ;  artists,  authors,  actresses,  and 
social  leaders  are  auxiliary  nurses.  A  luxury-loving, 
self-indulgent  class  have  been  born  again.  They 
have  found  the  pleasure  of  making  a  bed,  giving 
an  alcohol  bath,  and  repairing  an  automobile ;  of 
submitting  to  discipline  and  of  conquering  a  daily 
task ;  they  have  felt  the  deep  though  unexpected 
satisfaction  of  sacrifice  and  service ;  they  have 
met  and  merited  the  grateful  eye  and  have  heard 
the  appreciative  word  earned  by  their  useful  work. 
These  are  among  the  good  by-products  of  war. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  slippered  grandfather 
has  been  drawn  from  the  fireside  to  the  plow ;  the 
younger  son  and  daughter  from  the  school  to  the 
factory.  Old  age  has  been  robbed  of  its  serenity, 
youth  of  its  opportunity,  while  the  burying  squad 
has  marked  with  a  rude  cross  the  resting  place  of 
the  masters  in  science,  art,  and  industry,  and  the 
daughters  of  the  land  have  the  scant  comfort  of 
the  memory  of  a  soldier's  death. 

The  first  effect  of  the  declaration  of  war  was  the 
mobilization  of  the  forces  within  the  body  of 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  II 

each  individual  in  the  warring  countries.  In  other 
words,  the  kinetic  system  l  of  each  individual  was 
activated.  There  was  an  increased  output  of  ad- 
renalin, of  thyreoiodin,  of  glycogen ;  and  an  in- 
creased mobilization  of  the  Nissl  substance  in  the 
brain-cells,  from  all  of  which  theie  resulted  an  in- 
creased transformation  of  energy  in  the  form  of 
heat,  motion,  or  chemical  action.  The  individual 
moved  quickly ;  he  sang  or  prayed  ;  his  face  was 
flushed  ;  his  heart  beat  faster ;  his  respiration  was 
quickened  and  there  was  usually  an  increase  in  his 
body  temperature.  Fight  gained  possession  of  the 
final  common  path ;  it  dispossessed  the  routine 
activations  of  peaceful  occupation  and  human  rela- 
tions. In  each  individual  the  organs  and  tissues  of 
his  body  mobilized  their  stores  of  energy  just  as  each 
government  mobilized  its  resources  of  men  and 
material.  The  people  of  every  nation  petitioned 
God  to  help  them  kill  their  neighbors.  Millions  of 
wives  and  mothers  prayed  to  God  to  help  no  one, 
but  to  restrain  all  from  killing.  But  God  remained 
neutral.  Prayers  availed  nothing.  The  action 

1  The  kinetic  system  is  the  group  of  organs  in  the  body  by  means  of  which 
man  and  animals  transform  the  potential  energy  contained  in  food  into  mus- 
cular action,  emotion,  body  heat;  in  short,  it  is  the  system  by  whose  activity 
life  is  expressed.  It  may  be  compared  to  the  motor  of  an  automobile. 


12      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

patterns  of  war  had  become  established  in  the  brains 
of  the  men  of  the  nations. 

During  the  period  of  peace  each  country  had  accu- 
mulated much  surplus  wealth,  surplus  men,  surplus 
confidence.  Conscious  of  its  existing  strength  each 
was  confident  of  victory.  In  this  confidence  the 
supreme  stimulation  to  fight  against  his  distant 
enemy  so  mobilized  the  energy  of  the  soldier  that 
in  the  absence  of  the  object  of  his  attack  he  used 
this  mobilized  energy  in  song.  Two  general  types 
of  motor  acts  are  produced  by  the  mobilization 
of  energy  for  fighting  a  distant  enemy ;  namely, 
marching  and  singing.  Why  not  laughter  or  weep- 
ing ? *  Weeping  means  defeat,  and  the  realization 
of  defeat  comes  only  after  the  battle.  Laughter  is 
the  result  of  a  sudden  release  of  energy,  mobilized 
to  accomplish  some  definite  muscular  action.  If 
the  enemy  should  surrender  unexpectedly  before  he 
was  attacked,  then  there  would  be  laughter  on  the 
part  of  his  conquerors.  Marching  toward  the  enemy 
and  singing  are  the  two  types  of  muscular  action 
fabricated  by  the  kinetic  system  when  the  activa- 
tion for  fight  is  dominant.  But  the  mother  or  the 
wife,  in  whom  the  dominant  stimulus  is  the  desire 

1  The  Origin  and  Nature  of  the  Emotions. 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  13 

to  retain  the  son  or  the  husband  at  home,  weeps  be- 
cause the  parting  for  her  means  defeat.  During  the 
season  of  mobilization,  then,  the  kinetic  activation  of 
the  people  is  expressed  by  marching  and  singing  on  the 
part  of  those  going  to  battle,  and  by  silence  or  weep- 
ing by  those  left  at  home.  The  kinetic  systems  of 
those  who  fight  and  of  those  who  remain  at  home 
are  abnormally  active ;  but,  in  the  first  stage 
at  least,  the  activating  substances  thrown  into 
the  blood  are  more  completely  utilized  by  the 
muscular  activity  of  the  marching  and  singing 
husband  than  by  the  still  and  sobbing  wife.  The 
kinetic  systems  of  the  soldiers  during  mobilization 
are  less  strained  than  are  the  kinetic  systems  of 
those  he  left  behind. 

The  activation  of  the  soldier  in  the  presence  of 
actual  danger  as  facing  an  evenly  matched  enemy 
is  precisely  the  same  as  is  experienced  by  men  in 
many  other  situations  in  life,  —  in  the  first  encounter 
with  big  game ;  in  being  held  up  by  a  burglar ;  in  a 
railway  accident ;  or  in  facing  a  serious  surgical  opera- 
tion ;  although  most  of  all  the  activation  of  battle 
resembles  the  hunting  of  formidable  wild  beasts. 

Man  in  war,  as  a  hunting  animal,  is  elusive, 
resourceful,  adaptive,  brave,  and  persistent.  When 


I4      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

hunted,  man  turns  hunter  himself,  and  like  wolves 
men  hunt  in  packs.  Therefore  when  men  are 
mutually  hunting  each  other  their  brains  are  in- 
tensely activated  to  this  end,  and  all  other  relations 
of  life  are  dispossessed. 

Trench  Fighting 

The  nearer  the  trenches,  the  more  desperate  and 
intense  is  the  fighting.  In  trench  fighting  both  sides 
have  adopted  every  variety  of  flame,  acid,  and  ex- 
plosive that  ingenuity  can  devise.  Every  ruse,  every 
stratagem,  is  employed  in  the  close  personal  contact. 
It  is  as  if  one  were  contending  all  day  and  all  night 
with  a  murderer  in  one's  own  house. 

Under  these  conditions  the  personalities  of  the 
men  become  altered ;  they  become  fatalists  and 
think  no  longer  of  their  personal  affairs,  their  friends, 
or  their  homes.  Their  intensified  attention  is 
directed  solely  to  their  hostile  vis-a-vis.  They  look 
neither  to  the  right,  to  the  left,  nor  behind.  The 
gaze  of  each  is  fixed  upon  the  end  of  the  hostile  gun, 
which  may  hold  for  him  —  his  future  ! 

To  indicate  the  fierceness  of  the  struggle  in  the 
Argon ne,  I  know  of  one  instance  in  which  an  officer 
who  had  been  wounded  on  the  "hell-strip,"  "No- 


\\OINDED  SOLDIERS  FROM  THE  TRENCHES  IN  THE  ADMITTING  ROOM  AT  THE 
AMERICAN  AMBULANCE 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  15 

Man's  Land,"  that  red  lane  between  the  German 
and  the  French  advance  trenches,  lay  there  for  six  and 
one-half  days,  then  died.  Neither  rescue  nor  capture 
was  permitted.  Flashlights  played  over  this  wounded 
man  at  night,  and  food  was  thrown  to  him  from  the 
trenches  by  day.  Dead  bodies  lie  on  this  strip  or 
dangle  on  barbed  wires  for  days  and  weeks  and 
months. 

In  the  first  impact  of  war  many  men  in  all  of  the 
armies  became  insane ;  many  underwent  nervous 
breakdown ;,  some  became  hysterical ;  but  the  great 
majority  became  seasoned  and  maintained  a  state  of 
good  health.  The  rigid,  alert,  muscular  response 
uses  up  much  energy ;  the  appetite  is  active,  diges- 
tion good,  and  if  the  supply  of  food  is  adequate  the 
balance  of  nutrition  is  maintained.  I  have  observed, 
however,  that  soldiers  in  the  trenches  show  unusual 
lines  of  strain  upon  their  faces,  giving  them  the 
appearance  of  being  from  five  to  ten  years  older 
than  their  actual  ages. 

While  the  proximity  of  the  trenches  has  brought 
intensive  fighting,  it  has  also  brought  its  counter- 
part, —  fraternizing  between  the  opposing  sides. 
The  men  hear  each  other  talk  and  sing,  one  side  sig- 
nals, the  other  answers,  and  their  representatives 


1 6      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

appear    and    exchange     tobacco,    food,    and   news- 
papers. 

On  Christmas  day  the  son  of  an  English  friend  of 
mine  participated  in  a  friendly  interchange  of 
greetings.  The  soldiers  on  each  side  agreed  mu- 
tually to  the  cessation  of  hostilities,  and  spent 
the  day  in  chatting  and  burying  their  dead. 
Officers  ordered  their  men  back  to  the  trenches. 
The  men,  however,  agreed  that  until  a  stated  hour 
they  would  shoot  into  the  air.  When  that  hour 
arrived  both  sides  put  on  the  mask  of  war,  and  re- 
sumed the  business  of  killing  each  other. 

Soldiers  have  told  me  that  they  find  it  diffi- 
cult, at  times  impossible,  to  shoot  an  individual 
enemy  when  they  can  see  his  face  so  clearly  that  he 
might  again  be  recognized. 

In  general  we  may  say  that  the  warfare  of 
the  trenches  represents  an  intense,  though  not 
necessarily  a  destructive  activation  of  the  kinetic 
system,  which  might  be  compared  with  the  kinetic 
activation  of  prolonged  athletic  contests,  or  prolonged 
intense  mental  application,  such  as  a  chess  contest, 
or  the  taking  of  difficult  examinations. 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  17 

Artillery  Fire 

In  contrast  to  the  vis-d-vis  trench  fighting  with 
rifles  and  hand  grenades  and  dynamite,  artillery 
fire  is  more  severe  only  when  concentrated,  and  the 
concussive  effect  of  bursting  shells  brings  other 
forms  of  injury.  The  sudden  explosion  of  the 
shell  shocks  the  ear,  frequently  breaking  the  ear 
drum ;  it  shakes  the  body,  and  often  produces  a 
molecular  change  in  nervous  tissue.  The  rarefac- 
tion and  condensation  of  the  air  cause  such  violent 
changes  in  the  gaseous  tension  in  the  blood  as  to 
rupture  blood  vessels  in  the  central  nervous  system 
-  thereby  producing  an  injury  in  a  vital  part  and 
causing  sudden  death.  The  process  is  in  a  measure 
comparable  to  "caisson  disease"  or  "bends"  in 
workmen  laboring  under  atmospheric  pressure  in 
tunnels  under  water.  But  artillery  fire  is  less  per- 
sonal than  the  rifle  or  bayonet.  The  artillery  man 
rarely  sees  the  object  of  his  fire  ;  he  has  no  personal 
contact  with  the  enemy,  but  suddenly  finds  himself 
under  a  scorching  fire,  from  a  source  which  he 
cannot  ascertain,  from  an  enemy  he  cannot  see.  It 
is  like  quarreling  by  telegraph. 

In  describing  an  important  artillery  engagement, 


1 8      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

an  observer  told  me  that  although  there  were  a 
large  number  of  guns  in  action  he  could  not  see  a 
gun  nor  did  he  see  a  man.  The  general  and  his  staff 
were  stationed  behind  a  small  mound,  where  a  tele- 
phone kept  them  in  touch  with  the  action  at  the  front. 
The  scene  was  silent  and  grave.  Now  and  again  a 
messenger  came  and  went,  and  a  small  stream  of 
wounded  soldiers  were  seen  walking  slowly  back.  At 
one  moment  a  soldier  who  had  shown  especial  bravery 
in  capturing  a  mitrailleuse  was  sent  to  the  general, 
who  shook  his  hand  and  congratulated  him.  Only 
by  telephone  were  these  onlookers  finally  apprized 
that  the  battle  was  over  and  that  a  victory  had  been 
won.  Following  the  wounded  soldiers  one  could 
note  a  progressive  change  in  their  condition.  They 
became  weaker  and  more  nervous  and  as  the  stim- 
ulus of  battle  faded,  the  relaxation  and  fatigue 
became  manifest.  This  battle  was  in  the  woods 
of  the  Vosges.  The  same  observer  described  an- 
other battle  on  an  open  plain  in  which,  although 
the  entire  field  was  in  sight,  not  a  man  nor  a  gun 
could  be  seen,  so  complete  was  the  obliteration. 
Aside  from  the  sound  of  the  firing  of  heavy  guns 
and  the  whistle  of  shells  not  a  sight,  not  a  sound, 
gave  evidence  that  in  the  plain  a  battle  was  raging. 


THE  PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  19 

Waiting  under  Fire 

Lying  under  fire  for  the  first  time  while  waiting 
for  orders  to  charge  is  perhaps  the  most  trying 
ordeal  for  the  soldier,  for  his  instinct  urges  him 
to  face  the  on-coming  enemy.  He  realizes  the  pos- 
sibility of  immediate  death.  His  kinetic  system  is 
speeded  to  the  utmost.  He  is  activated  for  a  fierce 
physical  attack.  He  is  under  extreme  emotion. 
His  heart  pounds  loudly  against  his  ribs,  his  hands 
tremble,  his  knees  shake,  his  body  is  flushed  with 
heat,  he  is  drenched  with  sweat.  In  mechanistic 
terms  the  phenomena  manifested  by  the  soldier 
waiting  under  fire  may  be  interpreted  as  follows : 
His  brain  is  activated  by  the  approach  of  the 
enemy.  The  activated  brain  in  turn  stimulates  the 
adrenals,  the  thyroid,  the  liver.  In  consequence 
thyreoiodin,  adrenalin,  and  glycogen  are  thrown 
into  the  blood  in  more  than  normal  quantities. 
These  activating  substances  are  for  the  purpose  of 
facilitating  attack  or  escape.  As  the  secretions  thus 
mobilized  are  utilized  in  neither  attack  nor  escape, 
heat  and  the  muscular  actions  of  shaking  and  trem- 
bling are  produced.  The  rapid  transformation  of 
energy  causes  a  correspondingly  rapid  production 


20      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

of  acid  by-products.  These  increased  acid  by-prod- 
ucts stimulate  the  respiratory  center  to  greater  activ- 
ity to  eliminate  the  carbonic  acid  gas.  The  increased 
adrenalin  output  mobilizes  the  circulation  in  the 
limbs ;  withdraws  blood  from  the  abdominal  area ; 
causes  increased  heart  action  and  dilatation  of  the 
pupils.  In  addition,  the  increased  acidity  causes  in- 
creased sweating,  increased  thirst,  and  increased 
urinary  output,  all  of  these  water  phenomena  being 
adaptations  for  the  neutralization  of  acidity. 

Thus  the  intense  activation  of  the  soldier  waiting 
under  fire  for  orders  is  explained  on  mechanistic 
grounds,  and  the  resultant  changes  in  the  brain,  the 
adrenals,  and  the  liver  are  easily  demonstrable.  It 
is  this  strong  stimulation  of  the  kinetic  system  to 
fight  or  to  flight  that  in  the  first  experience  some- 
times results  in  fleeing.  The  subsequent  stimulus 
is  never  so  intense  as  the  primary  stimulus,  and  with 
experience  the  kinetic  system  is  progressively  less 
driven,  until  at  last  the  soldier  is  said  to  be 
'steady  under  fire/ 

The  Charge 

Soldiers  say  that  they  find  relief  in  any  muscu- 
lar action ;  but  the  supreme  bliss  of  forgetfulness  is 


-% • 
•  •  •  • 


I 


A  B 

SECTION  OF  NORMAL  CEREBELLUM     SECTION  OF  CEREBELLUM  AFTER  INSOMNIA 

(X   lOO)  —  100  HOURS   (X  lOO) 

Compare  the  well-stained  clearly  dt fined  Purkinje  cells  along  the  margin  of  section  A 
with  the  faint  traces  of  the  Purkinje  cells  which  are  barely  visible  along  the  margins 
of  section  B. 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  21 

in  an  orgy  of  lustful  satisfying  killing  in  a  hand-to- 
hand  bayonet  action,  when  the  grunted  breath  of 
the  enemy  is  heard,  and  his  blood  flows  warm  on 
the  hand.  This  is  a  fling  back  in  phylogeny  to  the 
period  when  man  had  not  controlled  fire,  had 
not  fashioned  weapons  ;  when  in  mad  embrace  he 
tore  the  flesh  with  his  angry  teeth  and  felt  the  warm 
blood  flow  over  his  thirsty  face.  In  the  hand-to- 
hand  fight  the  soldier  sees  neither  to  the  right  nor 
to  the  left.  His  eyes  are  fastened  on  one  man  - 
his  man.  In  this  lust-satisfying  encounter  injuries 
are  not  felt,  all  is  exhilaration ;  injury  and  death 
alike  are  painless.  A  life-sized  photograph  giving 
each  detail  of  the  face  of  a  soldier  thus  transformed 
in  the  supreme  moment  of  hand-to-hand  combat 
would  give  the  key  to  the  origin  of  war. 

When  a  little  child  is  pursued  it  turns  just  before 
it  is  caught.  All  through  life,  in  play  and  in  earnest, 
the  individual  turns  for  the  last  struggle.  During 
phylogeny  those  individuals  who  did  not  fight 
perished  and  by  perishing  left  no  progeny.  And  so 
it  is  that  now  most  men  —  perhaps  all  men  —  under 
certain  conditions  face  death  and  fight  until  death. 
So  it  is  that  now  man,  whom  we  consider  as  civil- 
ized, as  self-controlled,  as  evolved  to  a  higher  plane 


22      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

than  his  savage  progenitors,  is  thrilled  by  the  death 
agony  of  his  fellows.  The  action  patterns  of 
ontogeny  seem  but  shallow  tracings  upon  the  deep 
grooves  of  phylogeny ;  in  the  cultivated  man  of 
to-day  is  the  beast  of  the  phylogenetic  yesterday. 

The  Retreat  —  Fatigue  —  Loss  of  Sleep 

Perhaps  one  of  the  greatest  retreats  in  history 
was  that  of  the  allied  armies  from  Mons  to  the  Marne. 
Again  and  again  I  listened  to  the  story  from  men 
who  participated  in  that  retreat  and  their  personal 
experiences  varied  but  little. 

After  a  sustained  and  heavy  action  at  Mons, 
being  overpowered  by  the  enemy,  the  allied  armies 
began  the  retirement  which  continued  for  nine  days 
and  nights.  One  hundred  and  eighty  miles  of  march- 
ing without  making  camp  is  the  story  of  that  great 
retreat  in  which  the  pace  was  set  by  the  enemy. 
Only  rarely  were  sufficiently  long  halts  made  for  the 
men  to  catch  a  few  moments  of  rest.  Food  and 
water  were  scarce  and  were  irregularly  supplied. 

The  point  of  paramount  interest  in  that  retreat 
is  found  in  the  sleep  phenomena  experienced  by 
these  men.  It  has  been  shown  that  animals  sub- 
jected to  the  most  favorable  conditions,  kept  from 


A 


B 


SECTION  OF  NORMAL  ADRKNAI.  SECTION  OF  ADRENAL  AFTER  INSOMNIA 

(x  1640)  — loo  HOURS,     (x  1640) 

Compare  .-1  and  B,  noting  in  the  latter  the  disappearance  of  cytoplasm,  the  loss  of  some 
nuclei,  and  the  Kern-rally  disorganized  appearance  of  the  cells. 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  23 

exertion  or  worry,  supplied  with  plenty  of  food, 
and  in  good  hygienic  surroundings,  do  not  survive 
longer  than  from  five  to  eight  days  without 
sleep.  The  mere  maintenance  of  the  conscious  state 
is  at  the  expense  of  the  brain,  the  adrenals,  and  the 
liver,  and  these  changes  are  identical  with  the  changes 
in  these  organs  wrought  by  exertion,  infection,  and 
emotion.  The  changes  wrought  by  these  activators 
can  be  repaired  only  during  sleep.  Sleep,  therefore, 
is  as  essential  as  food  and  air.  In  this  retreat  from 
Mons  to  the  Marne  we  have  an  extraordinary  human 
experiment,  in  which  several  hundred  thousand  men 
secured  little  sleep  during  nine  days,  and  in  addition 
made  forced  marches  and  fought  one  of  the  greatest 
battles  in  history. 

How  then  did  these  men  survive  nine  days  appar- 
ently without  opportunity  for  sleep  ?  They  did  an 
extraordinary  thing, — they  slept  while  they  marched  ! 
Sheer  fatigue  slowed  down  their  pace  to  a  rate 
that  would  permit  them  to  sleep  while  walking. 
When  they  halted  they  fell  asleep.  They  slept  in 
water,  and  on  rough  ground,  when  suffering  the 
pangs  of  hunger  and  of  thirst,  and  even  when  severely 
wounded.  They  cared  not  for  capture,  not  even 
for  death,  if  only  they  could  sleep. 


24      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

The  unvaried  testimony  of  the  soldiers  was  that 
every  one  at  times  slept  on  the  march.  They  passed 
through  villages  asleep.  When  sleep  deepened  and 
they  began  to  reel,  they  were  wakened  by  comrades. 
They  slept  in  water,  on  stones,  in  brush,  or  in  the 
middle  of  the  road  as  if  they  had  suddenly  fallen  in 
death.  With  the  ever  on-coming  lines  of  the  enemy, 
no  man  was  safe  who  dropped  out  of  the  ranks,  for 
no  matter  on  what  pretext  he  fell  out,  sleep  con- 
quered him.  Asleep,  many  were  captured.  That 
the  artillery  men  slept  on  horseback  was  evidenced 
by  the  fact  that  every  'man  lost  his  cap. 

The  complete  exhaustion  of  the  men  in  this  re- 
treat from  Mons  to  the  Marne  is  vividly  told 
by  Dr.  Gros  of  the  American  Ambulance,  who  with 
others  went  to  the  battlefield  of  the  Marne  to  col- 
lect the  wounded.  On  their  way  to  Meaux  they  met 
many  troops  fleeing,  all  hurriedly  glancing  back, 
looking  more  like  hunted  animals  than  men,  intent 
only  on  reaching  a  haven  of  safety. 

When  the  ambulances  arrived  at  Meaux  at  mid- 
night they  found  the  town  in  utter  darkness.  Not 
a  sound  was  heard  in  the  street,  not  a  light  was 
seen.  The  only  living  things  were  hundreds  of  cats. 
They  called,  they  shouted,  in  vain  they  tried  to 


A  B 

SECTION  OF  NORMAL  LIVER  SECTION  OF  LIVER  AFTER  INSOMNIA 

(x  1640)  — 100  HOURS  (x  1640) 

Compare  .1  and  B,  noting  the  vacuolated  spaces  and  general  loss  of  cytoplasm  in  the 

latter. 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  25 

arouse  some  one.  At  last  they  succeeded  in  awaken- 
ing the  mayor,  to  whom  they  said:  "Can  you  tell 
us  in  what  village  we  will  find  the  wounded  ?  We 
were  told  there  were  many  here."  The  mayor  re- 
plied :  "My  village  is  full  of  wounded.  I  will  show 
you."  With  the  aid  of  a  flickering  lamp,  they 
threaded  their  way  through  dark  streets  to  a  di- 
lapidated school  building.  Not  a  light !  Not  a 
sound  !  There  was  the  stillness  of  death !  They 
rapped  louder,  there  was  no  response !  Pushing 
open  the  door,  they  found  the  building  packed  with 
wounded  —  over  five  hundred  —  with  all  kinds  of 
wounds.  Some  were  dying,  some  dead,  but  every 
one  was  in  deep  sleep.  Bleeding,  yet  asleep  ;  legs 
shattered,  yet  asleep  ;  abdomen  and  chest  torn  wide 
open,  yet  asleep.  They  were  lying  on  the  hard 
floor  or  on  bits  of  straw.  Not  a  groan,  not  a  motion, 
not  a  complaint  —  only  sleep  ! 

Surgical  aid,  the  prospect  of  being  taken  to  a  good 
hospital,  the  thought  of  food  and  drink,  of  being 
removed  from  the  range  of  the  enemies'  guns,  awak- 
ened no  interest.  There  was  a  sleepy  indifference 
to  everything  in  life.  They  had  reached  the  stage 
of  unconditional  exhaustion,  and  desired  only  to  be 
left  alone. 


26      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

Dr.  Gros'  ambulance  corps  took  the  worst  cases 
first.  These  were  soldiers  with  shattered  legs  and 
arms,  some  with  compound  fractures,  some  with 
penetrating  wounds  of  the  abdomen  and  chest. 
They  made  little  or  no  complaint  on  being  picked  up, 
placed  in  ambulances,  and  transported.  The  only 
sound  they  uttered  was  when  the  torn  flesh,  glued 
to  the  floor  by  dried  blood,  was  pulled  loose. 

Thus  these  men,  goaded  by  shot  and  shell,  and  the 
ever-advancing  army ;  for  nine  days  without  ade- 
quate sleep  or  food  ;  in  constant  fear  of  capture, 
and  finally  wounded,  —  thus  these  men,  more  dead 
than  alive,  came  to  the  hospital :  and  thus  they 
slept  on  while  their  wounds  were  dressed. 

After  deep  sleep  for  two  or  three  days,  during 
which  they  wanted  neither  food  nor  drink,  they 
began  to  be  conscious  of  their  surroundings :  they 
asked  questions ;  they  experienced  pain ;  they  had 
discomforts  and  wants  ;  —  they  had  returned  from 
the  abysmal  oblivion  of  sleep. 

That  these  men  had  conquered  the  overwhelming 
impulse  to  sleep  sufficiently  to  continue  marching 
and  fighting  during  that  nine  days'  retreat  testifies 
to  the  dominating  power  of  battle.  That  a  soldier 
falls  asleep  during  the  dressing  of  severe  wounds 


WOUNDED  SOLDIER   FROM   THE    TRENCHES    UPON  ADMISSION  TO 
THE  AMBULANCE.     NOTE   THE  FACIES  OF  EXHAUSTION. 


THE  PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  27 

tells  a  trenchant  story  of  the  intensity  of  the 
stimulus  that  kept  him  awake.  The  exhausted, 
half-dead  appearance  of  these  soldiers  was  usually 
transformed  by  one  long  seance  of  sleep  during  which 
the  brain,  the  adrenals,  and  the  liver  had  in  some 
measure  overcome  their  physical  exhaustion. 

Dreams 

The  harmony  of  the  sleep  of  the  exhausted  soldier 
has  but  one  discordant  note,  and  that  is  the  dream 
of  battle.  The  dream  is  always  the  same,  always  of 
the  enemy.  It  is  never  a  pleasant  pastoral  dream, 
or  a  dream  of  home,  but  a  dream  of  the  charge,  of 
the  bursting  shell,  of  the  bayonet  thrust !  Again 
and  again  in  camp  and  in  hospital  wards,  in  spite 
of  the  great  desire  to  sleep,  a  desire  so  great  that  the 
dressing  of  a  compound  fracture  would  not  be  felt, 
men  sprang  up  with  a  battle  cry,  and  reached  for 
their  rifles,  the  dream  outcry  startling  their  comrades, 
whose  thresholds  were  excessively  low  to  the  stimuli 
of  attack. 

In  the  hospital  wards,  battle  nightmares  were 
common,  and  severely  wounded  men  would  often 
spring  out  of  their  beds.  An  unexpected  analogy 
to  this  battle  nightmare  was  found  in  the  anesthetic 


28      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

dreams.  Precisely  the  same  battle  nightmare,  that 
occurred  in  sleep,  occurred  when  soldiers  were 
going  under  or  coming  out  of  anesthesia,  when 
they  would  often  struggle  valiantly,  —  for  the  anes- 
thetic dream  like  the  sleep  dream  related  not  to  a 
home  scene,  not  to  some  dominating  activation  of 
peaceful  days,  but  always  to  the  enemy,  and  usually 
to  a  surprise  attack. 

One  day  a  French  soldier,  in  the  first  stage  of 
anesthesia,  broke  the  stillness  of  the  operating  room, 
transfixing  every  one,  while  in  low,  beautiful  tones, 
and  with  intense  feeling,  he  sang  the  Marseillaise. 

Pain 

Pain  as  a  phenomenon  of  war  exhibits  several 
variations  of  great  interest,  the  key  to  which  is  found 
in  the  conception  of  pain  as  a  part  of  an  adaptive 
muscular  action.  Identical  injuries  inflicted  under 
varying  conditions  yield  pain  of  unequal  intensity. 
The  most  striking  phenomenon  exhibited  by  soldiers 
is  the  absence  of  pain  under  the  following  conditions  : 
(a)  In  the  midst  of  a  furious  charge  the  soldier  feels 
no  pain  if  wounded  ;  and  sore  and  bleeding  feet  are 
unnoticed.  In  the  overwhelming  excitement  of  bat- 
tle he  may  be  shot,  stabbed,  or  crushed  without 


4 


EXHAUSTED  SOLDIER  FROM  THE  TRENCHES 

This  man  slept  continuously  for  two  days  and  nights  after  admission  to  the  American 

Ambulance. 


SHRAPNEL  WOUND  OF  JAW 
The  piece  of  shrapnel  removed  from  the  wound  is  held  by  the  nurse. 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  29 

feeling  pain,  (b)  The  blow  of  a  high  velocity  bullet 
or  projectile  unaccompanied  by  the  heat  of  battle 
causes  no  pain  on  impact,  though  there  may  be  a 
burning  sensation  at  the  point  of  entrance,  and  the 
soldier  may  feel  as  if  he  had  been  jarred  or  struck. 
Frequently  he  first  learns  of  his  wound  from  a 
comrade,  (c)  In  the  state  of  complete  exhaustion 
in  which  loss  of  sleep  is  the  chief  factor  pain  is  quite 
abolished,  (d)  Under  heavy  emotion  pain  is  greatly 
diminished,  even  prevented. 

We  can  now  offer  a  mechanistic  explanation  of 
these  exceptions  to  the  general  rule  that  bodily 
injury  causes  pain.  During  the  overwhelming  ac- 
tivation in  a  charge,  the  stimulus  of  the  sight  of 
the  enemy  is  so  intense  that  no  other  stimulus  can 
obtain  possession  of  the  final  common  path  of  the 
brain  —  the  path  of  action.  We  have  elsewhere 
shown  1  that  pain  is  inevitably  associated  with 
muscular  action ;  therefore  if  a  bullet  or  bayonet 
wound  is  inflicted  at  the  moment  when  this  injury 
cannot  obtain  possession  of  the  final  common  path, 
it  can  excite  no  muscular  action  and  conse- 
quently no  pain.  Hunters  attacked  by  wild  beasts 
(Livingstone)  testify  to  the  fact  that  the  tear- 

1  The  Origin  and  Nature  of  the  Emotions. 


3o      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND   PEACE 

ing  of  the  flesh  by  claws  and  teeth  cannot  dis- 
possess the  excessive  activation  of  the  brain  by 
the  realization  of  danger.  For  this  reason  the  teeth 
and  claws  of  the  beast  do  not  cause  any  adaptive 
muscular  response  and  therefore  there  is  no  pain. 
In  like  manner  the  emotion  of  fear  in  the  soldier 
holds  possession  of  the  final  common  path  so 
that  muscular  action  against  local  flesh  injuries  is 
prevented.  Not  only  in  war  does  emotion 
overcome  pain ;  so  does  great  anger ;  so  does  the 
exaltation  of  religious  fanatics  in  their  emotional 
rites. 

An  explanation  of  the  fact  that  even  when  other 
stimuli  do  not  possess  the  final  common  path  a  rifle 
ball  may  pass  through  the  body  without  causing 
pain  is  found  in  the  postulate  that  the  sense  organs 
react  only  to  those  stimuli  in  the  environment  to 
which  they  have  become  adapted  and  to  those  stimuli 
only  when  they  are  applied  within  the  limits  of 
adaptation.  Too  bright  a  light  blinds ;  too  loud  a 
sound  deafens.  There  is  no  receptive  mechanism 
adapted  to  the  stimuli  of  the  X-ray.  The  high- 
speed bullet  is  a  recent  development,  and  even  were  it 
not  recent,  no  muscular  action  could  have  availed  as  a 
defense  against  it.  The  force  of  its  impact  and  its 


SECTION  OF  NORMAL  CEREBELLUM 
(x  310) 


SECTION  OF  CEREBELLUM  SHOWING 
EFFECT  OF  EXTREME  PHYSICAL 
EXERTION  (x  310) 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  31 

speed  is  beyond  the  range  of  muscular  adaptation  and 
therefore  it  elicits  no  muscular  response  —  no  pain. 

As  for  the  diminished  pain  in  exhaustion,  especially 
exhaustion  in  which  loss  of  sleep  is  an  important 
factor,  the  following  explanation  seems  adequate : 
As  we  have  stated  already,  pain  is  always  associated 
with  muscular  action.  Therefore  if  the  kinetic  sys- 
tem is  so  completely  exhausted  that  no  more  mus- 
cular action  can  be  excited,  pain  is  impossible.  In 
a  state  of  exhaustion,  therefore,  unless  the  injury  is 
sufficient  to  mobilize  the  dregs  of  energy  remaining  in 
the  kinetic  organs  there  will  be  no  muscular  action 
and  no  pain.  This  explanation  is  strongly  supported 
by  the  fact  that  as  soon  as  exhausted  soldiers  had 
slept  long  enough  to  restore  in  some  measure  the 
energy  of  the  brain,  the  adrenals,  and  the  liver,  then 
muscular  action  and  coincidentally  pain  were  evoked 
normally. 

We  know  also  that  in  a  state  of  exhaustion,  much 
less  anesthesia  is  required  to  confer  freedom  from 
pain  than  is  required  in  a  normal  unfatigued  condi- 
tion. A  remarkable  example  of  the  depression  of 
pain  in  the  presence  of  other  more  dominant  stimuli  is 
the  case  of  a  young  British  sergeant,  who  in  a  severe 
engagement  while  standing  near  a  battery  had  his  leg 


32       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

partially  cut  off  by  a  shell  that  failed  to  explode.  He 
felt  no  pain,  merely  a  jar,  and  discovered  his  injury 
only  when  his  leg  failed  to  support  him.  He  hopped 
to  a  near-by  stack  of  grain  and  lay  down  behind  it. 
Here  he  took  out  his  dull  one-bladed  knife  and  com- 
pleted the  amputation,  feeling  no  pain  in  making 
the  division.  An  ambulance  squad  started  for  him 
but  immediately  the  enemy  fired  upon  them,  kill- 
ing one.  The  fire  becoming  more  intense,  the  ser- 
geant rolled  over  and  over  into  a  near-by  ravine. 
The  enemy  advanced  so  fast,  that  in  his  excitement 
he  struggled  up  and  forgetting  that  his  leg  was 
gone  threw  his  weight  on  the  stump.  Even  then 
he  felt  no  pain.  For  several  hours  he  lay  there  with- 
out pain  until  after  the  danger  had  passed  and  he 
was  removed  by  the  stretcher  squad.  Then  pain 
took  possession  of  the  final  common  path  and  his 
suffering  began. 

The  fact  that  pain  is  an  accompaniment  of  mus- 
cular action  and  that  without  some  associated  mus- 
cular action  there  is  no  pain,  makes  it  clear  that  there 
can  be  no  pain  when  the  system  is  as  exhausted  as  in 
the  soldiers  in  their  retreat  to  the  Marne.  A  striking 
illustration  of  the  absence  of  pain  in  the  presence  of 
extreme  fear  and  exhaustion  is  found  in  an  incident 


SECTION  OF  NORMAL  ADRENAL 
(X  1640) 


B 

SECTION  OF  ADRENAL  SHOWING  EFFECT 
OF  EXTREME  PHYSICAL  EXERTION 
(x  1640) 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  33 

related  by  Dr.  Gros,  which  occurred  during  the  trans- 
portation of  wounded  soldiers  who  had  made  the  ex- 
hausting march  from  Mons  to  the  Marne. 

It  was  a  dark  night  and  the  hospital  train  filled 
with  the  wounded  was  crossing  the  river  Ourcq. 
The  engineer  failed  to  see  that  the  bridge  was  broken, 
and  the  train  plunged  into  the  river  beneath,  some  of 
the  cars  remaining  on  the  bridge  and  some  being  sus- 
pended in  mid-air.  The  patients  in  the  suspended 
cars,  struggling  like  worms  in  a  bottle,  were  thrown  in 
heaps  against  the  ends.  The  engine  exploded,  the 
cars  were  filled  with  live  steam,  and  many  of  the 
wounded  were  burned  to  death.  The  suspended 
cars  could  not  be  righted  and  the  wounded  were 
dragged  out  by  main  force. 

Such  intensified  cruelty  could  not  come  even  to 
trapped  animals.  It  could  come  only  through  the 
ingenuity  of  man  —  through  the  machinery  of  civili- 
zation. And  yet  these  men,  suffering  from  fear, 
excessive  marching,  fighting,  the  loss  of  sleep,  and 
the  plunge  into  darkness,  scalded,  steamed,  grilled, 
and  finally  shattered  and  bleeding,  —  these  men 
felt  no  pain. 

There  is  one  other  factor  which  prevents  pain  — 
the  so-called  "wind  of  the  ball"  or  concussion.  In 


34      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

the  early  days  of  the  Far  West  this  was  known  as 
creasing,  and  was  utilized  in  catching  wild  horses. 
The  horse  was  stalked  to  a  water-hole  where  by  a 
sure  aim  a  rifle  ball  was  sent  through  its  neck  just 
above  the  spinal  column.  The  "wind  of  the 
ball"  knocked  the  horse  down  and  it  could  easily 
be  roped.  Thus  in  war  man  knocks  down  many  of 
his  fellows  by  the  "wind  of  the  ball."  A  ball  grazes 
the  head  or  the  neck,  and  the  soldier  falls.  A  ball 
or  shell  in  passing  through  the  arm  or  leg  grazes  a 
nerve  trunk  and  there  is  sensory  and  motor  paralysis 
below  it.  A  ball  passes  through  the  spinal  column, 
and  the  entire  body  and  extremities  below  are  para- 
lyzed. There  are  cases  also  in  which  the  pain  sense 
has  been  lost  although  apparently  no  injury  has 
been  received,  the  anesthetic  condition  being  analo- 
gous to  hysterical  anesthesia.  For  these  I  can  offer 
no  interpretation. 

Courage 

That  animals  accept  battle  at  sight  and  struggle 
unto  death  excites  no  comment.  That  the  herbivora 
secure  their  daily  food  bravely  under  the  eyes  of 
their  enemies  is  taken  for  granted.  We  expect  even 
the  worm  to  turn.  Fighting  to  the  death  has  been 


A  B 

SECTION  OF  NORMAL  LIVER          SECTION  OF  LIVER  SHOWING  EFFECT  OF 
(x  1640)  EXTREME  PHYSICAL  EXERTION  (x  1640) 


THE  PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  35 

the  game  of  life  among  the  progenitors  of  man. 
In  the  evolution  of  man  the  strongest  and  the  brav- 
est have  survived.  Thus  bravery  is  an  evolved 
phenomenon  and  as  such  must  have  survival  value. 
The  soldiers  of  all  nations  at  war  are  brave  and  all 
die  as  bravely  as  animals  die. 

The  Wounded 

Usually  the  wounded  are  not  rescued  until  night  — 
they  are  left  to  make  a  lone  struggle  until  darkness 
protects  them.  This  is  not  because  it  is  undesirable 
to  rescue  them  during  the  day,  but  impossible ! 
Even  at  night  the  rescue  work  is  hazardous,  as  shell 
fire  plays  constantly  over  the  field.  The  Red  Cross 
has  proved  as  much  a  target  as  a  protection,  for  in 
this  war  ambulances  and  hospitals  are  fired  upon. 
The  toll  of  killed  and  wounded  surgeons  in  the  first 
weeks  of  the  war  ranked  with  that  of  the  artillery 
officers. 

The  fate  of  the  wounded  is  uncertain.  The 
wounded  soldier  who  will  soon  be  able  to  return  to 
the  front  is  kept  within  the  sound  of  the  guns  lest 
he  lose  his  morale.  Here  with  no  sense  of  security 
he  must  make  his  recovery.  Like  trapped  animals 
wounded  soldiers  often  complete  the  amputation  of 


36       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

their  own  mangled  limbs  :  they  may  be  buried  alive 
in  shelled  trenches ;  they  may  be  frozen  to  death 
or  die  of  hunger  and  thirst ;  they  may  be  burned 
or  their  frozen  feet  may  drop  off  with  their  shoes. 
The  wounded  must  often  consort  with  the  dying  - 
the  dead  —  the  decomposing.  They  may  become  ill, 
delirious,  insane  before  they  have  reached  the 
hospital  train. 

In  a  heavy  action  neither  side  knows  just  when 
the  blow  will  fall ;  neither  side  knows  how  many 
will  be  wounded.  The  railways  are  choked  with 
onrushing  troops.  There  are  often  no  means  for 
considering  the  wounded,  the  order  of  military  train 
service  being — first,  fresh  troops  ;  second,  munitions  ; 
third,  food ;  fourth,  the  wounded.  How  many 
freight  cars  would  be  needed  to  carry  ten  thousand 
wounded  ?  Yet  this  is  but  an  ordinary  toll.  In 
emergencies  the  wounded  are  packed  into  cars  — 
freight  cars,  any  kind  of  cars,  on  the  floors  of  which 
there  may  perchance  be  straw.  Under  such  stress  it 
may  take  days  for  the  hospital  train  to  make  even 
fifty  miles.  The  dead  from  time  to  time  are  cast  out 
like  dead  bees  from  a  hive  and  the  quiet  moans  of 
the  occupants  of  these  charnels  are  drowned  by  the 
vigorous  songs  of  the  fresh  young  patriots  on  the  next 


COMPOUND  FRACTURE  OF  THE  ARM  WITH  SERIOUS  INFECTION. 

Most  wounds  become  infected,  especially  those  made  by  fragments  of  shell,  as  pieces 
of  dirty  clothing  are  carried  into  the  wound. 


MULTIPLE  WOUNDS  CAUSED  BY  HAND  GRENADE. 


FROZEN  FEET. 
A  frequent  sequel  of  life  in  the  trenches. 


THE  PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  37 

track  eager  to  fling  themselves  into  the  hopper  of  the 
greedy  mill  which  grinds  steadily  on  while  the 
nations  applaud. 

Causes  of  Death 

At  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  the  war  it  was 
estimated  that  ten  million  soldiers  had  been 
killed,  wounded,  or  were  missing. 

The  common  causes  of  death  are :  (a)  fragmen- 
tation of  the  body  —  a  sudden,  painless  exit ;  (b) 
shock  —  a  violent  restless  exit ;  (c)  hemorrhage  —  a 
quiescent,  fading  exit ;  (d)  infections  —  blood  pois- 
oning, gas  gangrene,  and  tetanus.  These  are  the 
wider  avenues  through  which  the  soldier  marches 
into  oblivion. 

The  phenomena  of  war  merely  show  that  only 
in  the  possession  of  more  complex  reactions  does 
the  animal  —  man  —  differ  from  other  animals. 
The  veneer  of  civilization  is  astonishingly  thin. 
Man  argues  like  the  brute  —  man  fights  and  kills 
like  the  brute.  Man  dies  like  the  brute. 

Non-combatants 

When  a  civil  community  is  first  under  fire  it  is 
terrorized.  In  time  this  terror  wears  away  and  life 


38       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

under  the  sound  of  shells  goes  on  quite  normally. 
I  observed  that  from  Furnes  to  Ypres  the  farmers 
were  quietly  tilling  the  soil  under  active  shell  fire. 
In  one  instance  just  at  the  outskirts  of  Ypres  I  saw 
a  fresh  excavation  made  by  a  shell  which  had  fallen 
on  a  newly  made  furrow.  The  farmer  was  working 
at  one  end  of  the  furrow  and  the  German  artillery 
at  the  other  end  !  The  farmer  seemed  no  more 
disturbed  than  the  artillery.  An  aeroplane  fight 
high  above  our  heads  called  forth  the  rapt  atten- 
tion of  every  one  in  the  fields,  on  the  roads,  and 
in  the  houses,  but  even  so  the  excitement  was  less 
than  one  usually  sees  at  a  baseball  game. 

In  Ypres,  so  long  under  bombardment,  and  so 
extensively  battered,  some  of  the  citizens  had  stolen 
back  in  spite  of  shells  and  had  resumed  their  daily 
routine.  I  recall  a  little  plaster  house  at  the  edge 
of  the  town,  in  the  doorway  of  which  two  women 
were  pleasantly  gossiping  and  two  little  girls  were 
playing  with  dolls.  The  nearer  the  front  one  goes, 
the  more  quiet  and  serious  every  one  seems.  It  is 
the  solemn  atmosphere  of  the  consecration  of  human 
life. 

The  effect  of  war  on  non-combatants,  especially 
on  the  women,  is  as  characteristic  as  on  the  fighting 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  39 

men.  Species-preservation  and  self-preservation  are 
often  antithetical ;  in  other  words,  struggle  for  life 
dispossesses  impulses  to  procreation.  As  the  struggle 
for  life  lessens,  the  phenomena  of  procreation  in- 
crease, a  fact  demonstrated  by  the  fashions,  amuse- 
ments, and  the  type  of  indulgences  of  prosperous 
seasons.  In  a  period  of  war,  however,  the  fittest 
males  are  called  to  the  battle  line,  and  the  women 
are  mobilized  for  relief.  The  antithetic  reaction  of 
saving  life  becomes  as  strongly  stimulated  as  the 
reaction  of  destroying  life,  and  the  impulse  to  pro- 
creation loses  its  claim  to  the  final  common  path. 
Self-indulgence  disappears.  The  males  struggle  in 
battle  for  the  preservation  of  their  tribe  or  nation 
against  their  enemy ;  the  females  struggle  in  the 
care  of  the  sick  and  wounded  to  preserve  their  race 
and  tribe,  by  mitigating  the  destructive  work  of  the 
enemy.  The  military  unfit  strive  to  fill  the  vacant 
places  in  the  ranks  of  industry  and  of  science.  Thus 
the  non-combatants  are  mobilized  as  completely  as 
are  the  combatants. 

The  non-combatant,  however,  is  more  emotional 
than  the  combatant.  Emotion  being  an  activation 
without  resultant  muscular  action,  the  non-combat- 
ant finds  immense  relief  in  physical  work.  The 


40       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

woman  craves  to  nurse  the  wounded  soldier,  and  she 
willingly  performs  for  him  the  most  menial  services  ; 
the  more  she  is  driven  emotionally  by  having  sons 
or  husband  at  the  front,  the  more  she  is  impelled 
to  exert  physical  care  on  some  soldier  —  any  soldier, 
even  one  of  the  enemy,  and  in  that  work  she  finds 
her  salvation,  for  without  a  working  interest  she 
would  be  impaired,  even  destroyed  by  the  emotion 
of  fear. 

One  evening  while  Paris  was  in  Zeppelin  dark- 
ness, I  kept  a  professional  appointment  in  one  of 
a  certain  group  of  buildings.  I  lost  my  way  in  the 
great  darkened  structures  and  wandered  from  floor 
to  floor,  building  to  building,  through  empty  halls, 
until  at  last  I  met  an  aged  servant  who  showed  me 
the  way  to  the  room  where  I  found  the  great 
Metchnikoff  !  This  building  was  the  famous  Pasteur 
Institute.  Before  the  war  from  ninety  to  one  hun- 
dred scientists  were  here  engaged  in  research  !  The 
next  day  I  visited  the  Sorbonne,  whose  intellect- 
ual activities  of  other  days  are  now  represented 
by  a  small  group  of  military  discards.  No  less 
deserted  must  be  the  famous  seats  of  learning  of 
Germany,  Austria,  Russia,  and  measurably  of 
England. 


THE   PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  4! 

The  brains  holding  the  germs  of  mighty  truths 
are  enriching  the  soil  of  the  far-flung  battle  lines 
today,  and  the  torch  of  civilization  has  been  handed 
to  us. 

Grief 

The  quality  of  grief  excited  by  the  death  of  those 
who  have  fallen  in  battle  differs  from  the  grief  for 
those  who  die  in  peace.  In  war,  grief  is  mitigated 
because  it  is  a  common  lot  and  is  the  result  of 
service  to  the  native  land.  Even  in  war,  however, 
circumstances  alter  the  quality  of  grief  for  the 
fallen.  When  a  bridge  has  been  saved,  a  hazard- 
ous message  delivered,  defeat  averted,  or  the  tide 
of  battle  turned,  then  grief  becomes  glorified  and 
the  death  of  the  hero  causes  exhilarative  pride. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  death  is  the  unheroic  result 
of  fever,  grief  is  unassuaged. 

End  Effects 

The  most  striking  end  effect  of  war  is  race  deterio- 
ration. The  effect  of  war  on  the  race  is  seen  in  the 
effect  of  emigration  on  New  England.  In  stature, 
in  energy,  and  in  enterprise,  the  New  England  farmer 
has  deteriorated  by  losing  so  many  of  his  fittest 


42       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

sons.  It  has  been  stated  that  Napoleon  shortened 
the  stature  of  the  French  by  several  inches.  The 
human  animal  is  not  unlike  other  animals,  —  no 
one  breeds  from  scrub  stock.  This  war  will  diminish 
the  stature  and  vigor  of  the  human  race  to  the 
extent  that  the  killed  were  larger  and  stronger  than 
those  who  remained  at  home. 

The  birth  rate  at  the  end  of  the  war  will  be 
changed.  It  will  be  increased  among  the  victors, 
decreased  among  the  vanquished.  In  this  respect 
man  reacts  like  animals.  Animals  breed  best  amidst 
plenty,  less  when  food  and  shelter  are  inadequate, 
and  least  of  all  when  harassed  in  captivity. 

I  am  told  by  an  official  of  a  large  insurance  com- 
pany that  in  Europe  suicides  are  now  increasing  in 
the  civil  population  and  that  diabetes  increased 
after  the  Balkan  War.  I  am  told  that  among 
the  Belgians,  Bright's  disease,  apoplexy,  diabetes, 
neurasthenia,  and  insanity  increased  after  their 
vivisection  by  Germany.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  the  adult  Belgians  have  lost,  on  the  average, 
ten  pounds  in  weight  and  have  aged  from  five  to  ten 
years.  As  a  whole  the  nations  at  war  have  sustained 
vast  moral  and  mental,  as  well  as  physical  injuries. 
They  have  lost  the  unit  value  of  millions  of  years 


THE  PHENOMENA  OF  WAR  43 

of  life.     The  biologic  aspect  of  the  end  effects  of 
war  will  be  considered  later. 

Compensations 

There  are  certain  compensations  for  war.  War 
and  preparation  for  war  develop  national  conscious- 
ness —  increase  national  and  individual  efficiency ; 
they  lead  to  industrial  expansion,  to  invention ; 
they  bring  order  and  discipline  to  men  ;  they  develop 
unselfishness  and  charity  ;  they  strike  down  needless 
distinctions ;  and  through  war  or  the  threat  of  war 
the  masses  have  often  achieved  personal  liberty. 
Military  training  benefits  the  individual  and  the 
nation ;  it  teaches  obedience,  respect  for  authority, 
punctuality,  team  play ;  it  promotes  physical  devel- 
opment and  personal  hygiene.  Military  training  is 
a  valuable  preparation  for  any  civil  career. 

How  much  of  the  great  advance  of  European 
civilization  has  been  due  to  rivalry  and  struggle 
among  the  great  powers  it  is  difficult  to  estimate, 
but  no  such  progress  could  have  been  achieved  un- 
der conditions  of  guaranteed  peace,  for  progress  is 
born  of  struggle.  But  the  crucial  question  remains  : 
What  is  the  impelling  force  that  makes  man  wage 
war  ? 


.1'"  »  - 


% 

V 


me- 


ur^s^^^*^./*-    •• 
irtEWW*''.': 

BBW'&#  •••  ^3 
afoAit^   '   •' 

i^^  ^T^^T*  *  *  ^  •  V  %   f    f 


SECTION  OF  NORMAL  CEREBELLUM  (x  310) 


>   t 


w  j*     *  •^•i-A«    ¥  *  <*~*~    ' 
VJT        SrfT^^V    '|4'*L     *• 

SSwSS 


Section  of  cerebellum  of  a  soldier  who  had  suffered  from  hunger,  thirst,  and  loss  of  sleep  ; 
had  made  the  extraordinary  forced  march  of  180  miles  from  Mons  to  the  Marne  ; 
in  the  midst  of  the  greatest  battle  in  his'ory  was  wounded  by  the  explosion  of  a 
shell ;  lay  for  hours  waiting  for  help,  and  died  from  exhaustion  soon  after  reaching 
the  ambulance.  Compare  the  faded-out  exhausted  Purkinje  cell*,  indicated  by 
arrows,  with  the  Purkinje  cells  in  .1,  also  indicated  by  arrows. 


A 

SECTION  OF  NORMAL  ADRENAL  (x  1640) 


5 

Section  of  adrenal  of  soldier  described  in  preceding  illustration  (X  1640).  The  general 
disintegration  of  the  cells,  loss  of  cytoplasm,  misshapen  and  eccentric  nuclei  illus- 
trate the  effect  of  emotion,  exhaustion,  lack  of  sleep,  pain,  infection,  and  trauma. 


SECTION  OF  NORMAL  LIVER  (X  1640) 


*  «* 


Section  of  liver  of  soldier  described  in  preceding  illustration  (X  1640).  The  general 
disintegration  of  the  cells,  the  loss  of  cytoplasm,  and  the  vacuolated  spaces  within 
the  cells  illustrate  the  effect  of  emotion,  exhaustion,  lack  of  sleep,  pain,  infection, 
and  surgical  trauma. 


CHAPTER    III 
A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR 


CHAPTER   III 

A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR 
The  Rise  of  Man  through  Struggle 

IT  is  through  the  fortuitous  mating  of  an  infinite 
number  of  ancestors,  whose  characteristics  have 
been  transmitted  down  to  the  present  time,  that  the 
individual  of  to-day  has  become  the  product  of  all 
the  past. 

The  path  of  descent  is  the  same  for  civilized 
man,  half-civilized  man,  savage  man,  prehistoric 
man,  and  so  on  down  the  pathway  through  the 
long  line  of  the  successive  progenitors  of  man,  an 
unbroken  succession  from  the  present  to  the  lowest 
forms  of  life.  Within  himself  every  individual  holds 
the  imperfect  record  of  this  ascent  along  a  crimson 
trail.  We  may  suppose  that  eons  ago  as  a  weaker 
creature  man's  distant  progenitor  was  driven  by 
powerful  enemies  to  the  trees  where  his  strategy 
was  further  evolved  and  his  fore-feet  became  hands. 
Cautiously  he  returned  to  the  hostile  ground  of  his 

47 


48       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

ancient  enemies  and  resumed  the  battle  by  utiliz- 
ing the  forces  of  nature.  He  discovered  fire,  he 
found  metals,  he  fashioned  simple  tools  and  weap- 
ons ;  made  dugouts ;  tamed  animals ;  planted  seeds, 
utilizing  Nature  herself  to  aid  him  in  obtain- 
ing food,  shelter,  and  clothing,  and  in  securing  pro- 
tection against  his  foes. 

In  the  gradual  evolution  of  man  the  ever-present 
law  of  continuity  holds.  There  is  no  break  in  the 
path  from  the  orgy  of  the  naked  savage  to  the  sen- 
sual dance  of  to-day ;  from  the  careless  sale  of  a 
Bushman's  daughter  to  the  fixed  price  of  the  daugh- 
ter of  a  living  Croesus ;  from  the  savage  grapple 
with  wild  beasts  to  the  present  grinding  struggle  of 
competition.  From  birth  to  maturity  civilized  man 
is  tossed  upon  the  same  seas  of  passion  and  wrecked 
upon  the  same  rocks  as  those  upon  which  the  sim- 
plest tribesman  was  wrecked  eons  ago  !  During  this 
great  upward  struggle  man  has  steadily  gained 
greater  control  over  the  forces  of  nature  and  has 
become  more  and  more  completely  adapted  to  his 
environment.  By  the  fundamental  process  of  a 
physical  contest  with  environment  he  has  made 
the  forces  of  nature  turn  with  "tireless  arms  the 
countless  wheels  of  toil."  Through  breeding  he 


A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  49 

has  modified  the  physical  form  and  the  texture  of 
the  flesh  of  many  domestic  animals ;  he  has  found 
ways  of  utilizing  the  sun's  energy  of  millions  of 
years  which  was  stored  in  the  immense  vegeta- 
tion of  the  carboniferous  age  in  the  form  of  coal ; 
he  has  harnessed  the  waterfalls.  With  these  vast 
stores  of  energy  he  has  made  iron  and  steel ;  with 
iron  and  steel  he  has  encircled  the  globe  with  huge 
agencies  of  transportation  that  conquer  time,  space, 
and  gravity,  and  through  these  agencies  there  are 
brought  to  him  products  of  every  land.  He  has 
devised  language  and  the  printing  press,  which  have 
given  him  a  record  of  the  notable  motor  and  emo- 
tional acts  of  his  ancestors. 

These  descendants  of  the  cave  man  have  cap- 
tured and  domesticated  lightning ;  they  have  en- 
slaved the  world  with  a  copper  nervous  system 
which  enables  them  to  activate  the  action  patterns 
of,  and  in  turn  be  activated  by,  hundreds  of  mil- 
lions of  the  human  race.  A  slight  change  in  the 
chemistry  of  a  human  brain  cell  may  wreck  a  bank 
in  India,  fire  the  first  gun  in  a  great  war,  or  break  a 
woman's  heart.  Such  is  the  web  of  life  man  has 
woven  and  by  means  of  which  he  so  completely 
dominates  the  earth. 


5o      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

Pursuing,  escaping,  and  fighting,  the  brute  adap- 
tations, have  been  gradually  modified  during  the 
rise  of  man,  until  now  in  the  complicated  ma- 
chinery of  modern  life  the  human  energy  expended 
by  the  savage  in  pursuit  and  escape  and  fight  is 
expended  in  the  shop,  in  transporting  commodities 
on  land  and  sea,  in  preparing  armaments,  and  in 
pursuing  the  arts  and  sciences. 

The  most  powerful  activator  of  man  to-day,  there- 
fore, is  his  fellowman.  He  is  at  war  with  him  in 
business,  in  education,  in  philosophy,  in  the  fine 
arts,  in  the  professions,  in  the  pulpit,  in  politics,  in 
winning  mates !  In  all  his  waking  hours  and  in  his 
dreams  he  exerts  himself  against  his  fellows.  The 
savage  stalks  or  ambushes  his  enemy  or  his  prey  in 
direct  personal  effort  and  settles  the  issue  by  phys- 
ical prowess ;  civilized  man  stalks,  ambushes,  and 
attacks  indirectly  through  the  media  of  trade  and 
commerce.  The  savage  settled  his  issue  in  one 
physical  bout ;  indirectly  through  the  organized 
community  civilized  man  may  hurl  himself  against 
his  rivals  with  every  atom  of  his  strength  for  months 
and  years,  and  though  this  civilized  combat  draws 
no  blood  and  tears  no  tissue,  nevertheless  the  in- 
direct battle  is  waged  to  its  finish  in  bankruptcy, 


A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  51 

want,  suffering,  broken  health,  and  premature 
death. 

The  leaders  of  political  parties,  of  opposing 
churches,  of  industrial  and  commercial  corpora- 
tions, individuals  in  medicine,  law,  education,  liter- 
ature, art,  music,  sports,  even  in  philanthropy, 
daily  wage  these  indirect,  but  no  less  destructive 
contests.  In  the  field  or  in  the  shop  the  individual 
exerts  his  strength  directly  against  his  task,  so  that 
indirectly  the  energy  he  thus  expends  yields  in 
return  food,  clothing  and  shelter  and  a  modicum  of 
pleasure  for  him  and  his  family. 

Thus  in  civilized  life  man  is  hurling  his  energies 
either  directly  or  indirectly  against  his  environment 
to  the  end  that  he  may  live.  From  the  simple 
laborer  to  the  head  of  the  greatest  commercial, 
scientific,  educational,  or  governmental  organiza- 
tion, the  transformation  of  energy  is  made  in  accord- 
ance with  the  same  principle,  by  the  same  organs, 
and  for  the  same  reasons  as  the  transformation  of 
energy  in  uncivilized  man  or  in  the  lower  animals. 

In  the  selective  struggle  for  existence  the  acqui- 
sition of  food  developed  speed,  power,  cunning,  and 
craft  in  all  species,  but  as  the  food  suitable  for  each 
species  is  different,  each  has  developed  special 


52       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

activities,  and  special  responses  to  hunger.  Man 
labors  long  and  hard  to  this  end,  and  the  possibility 
of  want  is  one  of  his  great  sources  of  fear ;  but  a 
critical  analysis  will  show  that  there  is  no  difference 
between  the  orderly  struggle  of  men  to  supply  their 
material  needs  and  the  brutish  attacks  of  the  car- 
nivora  upon  their  prey. 

The  dominant,  constant  influence  of  the  phylo- 
genetic  response  to  the  instinct  of  self-preservation 
as  expressed  in  the  acquisition  of  food  is  nowhere 
more  clearly  evidenced  than  in  the  persistence  of 
the  hunting  instinct  in  man.  By  stealth  and 
strategy  our  progenitors  caught  birds,  animals,  and 
fish.  They  robbed  birds'  nests,  ate  fruits  and 
cereals  and  nuts.  At  some  remote  period  a  savage 
Newton  noted  the  relation  between  the  egg  and  the 
bird,  the  seed  and  the  plant,  and  as  a  result,  like 
the  ants,  man  learned  to  cultivate  and  modify  plants 
and  animals  for  his  own  use.  Some  early  progeni- 
tor discovered  the  use  of  simple  weapons  like  sticks 
or  stones  and  learned  how  to  increase  their  efficiency 
by  shaping  them.  And  then  came  the  greatest 
benefactor  the  human  race  has  ever  known  —  the 
unknown  progenitor  who  discovered  how  to  make 
and  control  fire ! 


I-'roin  Urchin'-  " 

THE  PHYLOGENETIC  ORIGIN  OF  WAR 
The  protection  of  home  and  family  against  invasion. 


A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  53 

Even  after  the  discovery  of  these  simple  but 
efficient  aids  to  their  existence,  however,  the  pro- 
genitors of  man  for  a  long  period  (geologic  time) 
must  have  depended  largely  on  hunting  and  fishing. 
That  much  of  the  hunting  and  fishing  of  prehistoric 
man  was  done  by  similar  means  to  those  employed 
by  the  carnivora  is  shown  by  children  in  their  in- 
stinctive stalking  of  birds  and  small  animals,  and  by 
the  way  in  which  untaught  boys  instinctively  stalk 
their  game  in  hunting.  How  suggestive  it  is  that 
man,  possessing  vast  fortunes  and  surrounded  by 
every  luxury,  frequently  yearns  to  hunt  and  to  fish, 
to  be  dirty  and  hungry  and  wild,  to  stalk  and  to  kill, 
caring  not  at  all  for  discomfort  or  the  flight  of 
time  —  that  thus  easily  his  civilized  veneer  may  be 
dispossessed  by  the  spirit  of  his  savage  hunting 
progenitors.  It  is  the  savage  recall.  It  is  the  sav- 
age in  him  that  is  throwing  all  of  his  resources  into 
the  task  of  catching  and  killing  his  prey ;  and  when 
at  last  the  salmon  or  the  trout  is  hooked,  what  a 
display  of  excitement  over  the  conquest  !  It  is  as 
if  a  life  were  at  stake. 

This  is  not  strange  when  we  recall  that  on  in- 
numerable occasions  the  life  of  the  fisherman's 
progenitors  must  have  depended  upon  the  catching 


54       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

of  a  single  fish.  Those  individuals  who  did  not 
exert  themselves  sufficiently  to  provide  food  for 
themselves  were  themselves  destroyed  by  the  more 
industrious  beasts  and  left  no  progeny.  The  al- 
most universal  excitement  of  man  in  the  presence  of 
wild  game  testifies  to  the  tragic  seriousness  of  the 
ancestral  hunt.  It  is  indeed  a  strong  and  deep 
savage  instinct  that  can  with  ease  thus  dispossess 
the  brain  of  business,  ambition,  worry  and  care. 

As  in  hunting,  so  in  play,  the  phylogenetic  brain 
patterns  of  the  species  are  manifest,  the  play  of  each 
species  being  as  characteristic  of  the  whole  behavior 
of  the  species,  as  is  the  real  life  work  of  the  adult 
animal.  Thus  hunting  animals  play  at  fight ;  the 
herbivora  at  escape ;  and  strategists  —  monkeys 
and  man  —  imitate  in  their  games  the  activities  of 
hunting,  fighting,  lovemaking,  and  rearing  offspring. 
Play  is  the  expression  of  energy  set  free  during 
consciousness,  running  over  the  only  nerve  paths, 
activating  the  only  mechanism  the  young  animal 
possesses.  It  would  be  no  more  possible  for  a 
lamb  to  bite  and  claw  like  a  kitten  than  for  an 
automobile  to  imitate  a  threshing  machine.  The 
play  of  children  shows  their  line  of  descent. 
They  chase  and  escape;  they  "hide  and  go  seek;" 


A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  55 

they  lead  and  direct  toy  animals ;  they  construct 
towers  and  bridges  with  blocks ;  they  kiss  and 
embrace ;  they  "  play  mother." 

During  the  years  that  pass  until  they  become 
adults  they  play  games  progressively  more  intri- 
cate ;  but  in  all  periods  of  life  games  consist  of 
contest ;  of  struggle ;  of  attack  and  defense.  In 
the  playing  of  cards,  chess,  golf,  billiards,  tennis, 
baseball,  football,  the  spirit  of  fight  is  ever  present ; 
fight  not  alone  of  the  players,  but  of  the  spectators. 
Thus  sometimes  we  see  the  strictest  police  precau- 
tions against  violence  on  the  part  of  the  spectators 
and  the  players  in  the  close  contests  of  rival  teams. 
Football  is  perhaps  the  most  satisfying  game  to  the 
full-blooded  youth,  as  this  gives  him  a  savage  grapple 
with  naked  hands  with  his  fellows.  Little  wonder 
that  slugging  is  so  hard  to  repress  ! 

Man  has  shown  his  greatest  ingenuity  in  the 
means  he  has  devised  for  harnessing  the  forces  of 
nature  to  provide  his  food  and  shelter  and  clothing, 
and  he  is  as  jealous  of  the  soil  that  produces  his 
food  as  he  is  of  life  itself.  For  an  inch  of  this  soil 
as  an  individual,  and  as  a  tribe,  a  state,  or  a  nation, 
man  is  willing  to  kill  or  be  killed.  Line  fence 
quarrels  are  proverbially  bitter  and  uncompromis- 


56      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

ing.  In  the  frontier,  disputes  as  to  the  ownership 
of  animals  often  cause  quarrels  and  feuds  to- 
tally out  of  proportion  to  the  material  considera- 
tions involved.  In  the  early  West  the  minimum 
punishment  for  horse  stealing  was  death.  All  these 
latent  passions  awakened  by  interference  with  food- 
producing  rights  apparently  arise  as  a  result  of  the 
same  ancient  law  that  explains  the  excitation  of  the 
hunter. 

In  community  life,  however,  individual  rivals 
rarely  submit  their  claims  for  ownership  or  suprem- 
acy to  the  test  of  physical  combat,  for  through  the 
evolution  of  law  and  convention  the  distribution  of 
food  and  the  furtherance  of  procreation  may  be 
accomplished  in  orderly  fashion.  So  efficient  and 
orderly  are  the  means  of  creating,  storing,  and  dis- 
tributing food  and  clothing  that  the  honest  winner 
of  more  than  his  own  share  must  have  either  some 
natural  advantage  or  a  greater  efficiency  than  the 
average  man.  Nevertheless,  the  mere  fact  that  one 
individual,  community,  or  nation  has  acquired  more 
than  his  average  share  excites  a  desire  in  those  who 
have  less  to  do  something  to  hinder  or  prevent  this 
material  advantage. 

Many  civilized  human  beings  are  so  admirably 


A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  57 

adapted  to  the  community  life  that  they  are  content 
with  their  own  winnings  and  therefore  are  not  jeal- 
ous of  the  greater  winnings  of  their  more  favored 
or  their  more  able  fellows ;  but  in  many  the  reac- 
tions of  the  uncivilized  man  and  the  brute  still  pre- 
vail, and  in  consequence  their  reaction  to  the  supe- 
riority of  a  fellow-being  is  to  desire  by  any  means  to 
drag  him  down  to  their  own  level.  In  like  manner 
all  human  beings  who  achieve  something  that 
others  wish  but  fail  to  accomplish,  awaken  the  brutish 
reaction  of  jealousy  —  and  the  jealous,  like  wolves,  run 
in  packs.  The  effect  on  the  pack  is  the  opposite ; 
their  time  and  their  lesser  efficiency  is  consumed  by 
their  futile  effort  to  destroy  a  fellow  whose  greater 
efficiency  is  attested  by  their  sincerest  tribute  — 
the  tribute  of  pack  pursuit.  The  envied  leader  is 
occupied  only  in  cultivating  the  field  he  possesses ; 
while  the  pack  endeavors  to  destroy  his  preeminence. 
If  a  member  of  the  pack  falters,  he  himself  is  de- 
voured. Jealousy,  therefore,  whether  between  in- 
dividuals or  nations,  is  an  instinct  of  phylogenetic 
origin,  and  like  the  hunting  and  the  play  instincts 
is  expressed  by  brutish  and  savage  reactions. 

What   is   the   impelling   force   which   throughout 
phylogeny    has    provoked    this    unending    contest  ? 


58       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

The  natural  increase  of  animals  and  plants  is  at 
a  greater  rate  than  their  food  supply  —  and  in 
consequence  plants  and  animals  have  ever  been 
subjected  to  selective  struggles.  It  is  as  a  result 
of  this  continuous  selective  struggle  that  the  organic 
world  has  attained  its  present  balanced  status. 

Man  a  Mechanism 

Under  this  conception  every  reaction  of  man  in  the 
survival  struggle  is  inevitable  and  is  determined  by 
the  forces  employed  in  the  struggle.  It  would 
seem,  therefore,  that  to  properly  understand  the  in- 
evitableness  of  war,  man  should  be  considered  as  a 
mechanism,  whose  reactions  under  a  given  set  of 
conditions  are  as  inevitable  as  are  the  reactions  of 
any  other  mechanism,  such  as  a  locomotive,  for 
example. 

If  we  assume  that  man  is  a  mechanism  that  acts 
as  a  machine,  that  is  a  machine  like  a  locomotive  or 
an  automobile,  it  is  necessary  to  define  the  device 
which  starts  his  activity,  and  which  continues, 
modifies,  and  terminates  that  activity.  If  man  is 
such  a  mechanism,  we  should  be  able  to  show  not 
only  physical  reasons  why  he  moves,  but  why  he 
fails  to  move  as  well,  just  as  there  are  demonstrable 


A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  59 

physical  reasons  why  a  locomotive  moves  and  why 
it  fails  to  move.  In  the  case  of  an  engine  the  burn- 
ing of  a  given  amount  of  coal  produces  a  given 
amount  of  work  in  the  form  of  heat  and  motion ; 
in  like  manner  in  man  the  consumption  of  a  given 
amount  of  food  produces  a  given  amount  of 
work. 

We  know  that  the  brain  contains  the  mechanism 
that  drives  the  body ;  we  know  that  environment 
drives  the  brain,  and  that  environmental  forces 
reach  the  brain  through  the  mediation  of  the  sense 
organs.  But  what  is  the  mechanism  within  the  brain 
by  means  of  which  a  given  stimulus  causes  different 
effects  in  different  brains  ?  Why  will  one  man  run 
away  and  another  attack  on  receipt  of  identical 
stimuli  ?  We  postulate  that  there  are  in  the  brain  of 
man  and  of  the  lower  animals  receptor  mechanisms 
analogous  to  the  receptor  mechanism  in  the  eye,  — 
the  rods  and  cones, — which  like  the  apparatus  of  a 
wireless  receiving  station  are  attuned  to  receive  light 
waves  only  of  specific  wave  lengths,  i.e.  between 
397  and  760  millionths  of  a  millimeter. 

Even  more  delicate  than  the  light-receiving  mech- 
anism of  the  eye,  however,  are  the  receptor  mech- 
anisms which  we  assume  to  exist  within  the  brain 


60      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

-  intricate  mechanisms  consisting  of  a  vast  number 
of  parts  or  patterns  each  of  which  has  been  endowed 
by  evolution  with  the  quality  of  being  modified  by 
each  passage  of  specific  energy  over  it.  Each  pas- 
sage of  specific  energy  initiated  by  a  given  stimu- 
lus facilitates  the  passage  of  energy  from  an  iden- 
tical stimulus  at  a  subsequent  time.  As  a  result 
of  the  passage  of  energy  over  each  of  these  pat- 
terns, energy  is  released  for  the  performance  of  an 
action  specific  to  the  exciting  stimulus.  It  is  pos- 
tulated that  thus  are  established  action  patterns 
which  determine  behavior,  conduct,  and  the  various 
human  reactions. 

In  other  words,  we  assume  that  there  exist  within 
the  brain  certain  structures  which  have  been 
evolved  to  receive  specific  energy  and  to  trans- 
mit that  specific  energy  to  other  mechanisms  in 
the  brain  where  energy  is  stored  in  such  a  la- 
bile form  that  it  may  readily  be  released  to  pass 
over  certain  nerves.  As  a  result  of  the  passage 
of  energy  over  certain  nerves  certain  groups  of  mus- 
cles are  activated,  and  specific,  adaptive  acts  are 
performed.  Thus  the  soldier  marches,  halts,  aims, 
fires,  fixes  his  bayonet,  charges,  retreats.  If  his 
brain  is  blown  off,  his  mechanism  can  no  longer  be 


A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  61 

activated  through  the  senses.  If  it  were  possible, 
however,  to  stimulate  the  various  nerves  running  to 
the  muscles  that  participate  in  a  given  act  by  an 
electric  current  of  the  same  intensity  as  the  current 
of  energy  received  from  the  brain,  the  headless 
soldier  would  march,  halt,  aim,  fire,  fix  bayonet, 
charge,  retreat ;  and  as  long  as  the  nerve-muscle 
mechanism  remained  physiologically  intact  and  the 
electric  current  was  supplied,  shot  and  shell  could 
not  stop  him. 

We  assume  that  the  mechanisms  in  the  brain  which 
determine  the  response  made  by  an  individual  to  any 
stimulus  have  been  evolved  as  a  result  of  the  selec- 
tive struggle  of  the  human  species. 

If  we  contrast  the  large  central  battery  —  the 
brain  —  of  man  with  the  small  brains  of  lower 
animals,  we  can  see  one  of  the  mechanical  differ- 
entiations of  man  from  the  lower  animals. 

As  a  result  of  the  multiplicity  of  action  patterns 
evolved  in  the  larger  brain  of  man,  the  body  of  man 
is  driven  in  more  intricate  ways  than  that  of  any 
other  animal.  The  life  of  the  carnivora  as  a  class 
is  divided  between  sleep  and  prowling  for  food ;  of 
the  herbivora,  between  feeding  and  rest ;  the  sur- 
vival of  man,  however,  depends  upon  his  versatility. 


62       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

As  compared  with  most  lower  animals  man  is  con- 
tinually on  duty. 

For  this  reason  the  organs  of  man  are  driven  harder 
than  the  organs  of  the  lower  animals.  How  rarely  do 
we  find  diabetes,  neurasthenia,  insanity,  Bright's  dis- 
ease, Graves'  disease,  cardiovascular  disease  among 
wild  animals  or  among  the  quiescent  domesticated 
animals.  The  horse,  whose  kinetic  system  is  driven 
by  the  kinetic  system  of  man,  who  is  goaded  and 
restrained  by  man,  has  many  of  the  diseases  of  man. 
The  cow,  whose  yield  of  flesh  and  milk  is  greatest 
when  she  is  best  fed  and  least  disturbed,  is  given  a 
perpetual  rest  cure  by  man,  and  consequently  with 
her  disease  is  comparatively  rare. 

The  actions  of  man  are  the  result  of  adequate 
stimuli,  and  however  indirect  the  stimulus  or  the  re- 
sponse, the  activated  mechanism  and  the  form  of  its 
response  are  of  ancient  phylogenetic  origin  and  have 
been  woven  into  the  web  of  life.  As  a  result  of  pres- 
ent community  life,  of  convention,  of  customs,  and 
of  law,  but  few  of  the  many  excitations  to  combat 
are  met  to-day  by  physical  combat.  In  such  a  case, 
if  the  discharge  of  energy  from  the  stimulated 
action  pattern  is  not  expressed  in  muscular  action, 
emotion  results  —  a  state  which  may  be  more 


A  BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  63 

dangerous  to  the  individual  even  though  less  so  to 
his  fellow. 

The  destruction  caused  by  excessive  motor  and 
emotional  driving  results  in  various  diseases. 
Against  the  conditions  of  the  stress  of  present-day  life 
that  produces  these  diseases  man  reacts  in  various 
ways.  He  is  driven  to  hunt  and  to  fish,  to  play 
games,  to  ride  horseback,  to  go  to  the  country,  to 
cultivate  literature,  art,  music,  and  the  drama.  All 
of  these  are  self-preservative  reactions,  achieving 
results  because  they  change  the  integration  —  give 
relief  from  the  usual  driving  stimuli. 

Man  avoids  these  tense  kinetic  fellow-being  stim- 
uli by  means  of  unions,  combinations,  trusts, 
protective  laws,  any  artificial  means  by  which  he 
may  escape  the  heat  of  battle  with  his  fellows  in 
his  struggle  for  existence.  In  addition,  man  may 
react  to  these  tense  driving  human  stimuli  by  mini- 
mizing the  activity  of  his  motor  mechanism  through 
the  use  of  agents  that  depress  the  activity  of  the 
brain  —  such  as  alcohol,  tobacco,  drugs,  anesthetics  ; 
and  sometimes  hard  driven  man  may  plunge  into 
oblivion  through  suicide. 

How  then  does  this  apply  to  war  ?  We  shall  offer 
evidence  which  tends  to  show  that  war  is  the  end 


64      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

effect  of  the  action  patterns  previously  established 
in  a  people.  Man  is  not  a  stranger  to  fight  —  the 
oceans  would  not  hold  the  blood  he  has  shed. 
The  carcasses  of  his  slain  would  heap  the  earth. 
Probably  the  entire  surface  of  the  earth  has  been 
many  times  slain  in  its  organic  form  by  man,  and 
perhaps  the  organic  forms  he  has  slain  in  greatest 
numbers  have  been  those  of  his  own  kind. 

Thus  through  the  ages  has  been  established  within 
the  brain  of  man  the  phylogenetic  action  patterns  of 
killing,  equaled  in  their  intensity  not  even  by  the  phy- 
logenetic action  patterns  of  procreating.  The  action 
patterns  of  killing  are  the  product  not  of  phylogeny 
(species  experience)  alone,  but  of  ontogeny  (individual 
experience)  also.  The  part  played  by  ontogeny  —  by 
parents,  teachers,  literature,  public  opinion,  and  the 
fine  arts  —  will  be  more  fully  discussed  later.  It  is 
sufficient  to  say  here  that  the  behavior  of  an  indi- 
vidual or  a  people,  the  dominant  action  patterns  of 
whose  brains  have  been  formed  by  responses  to  the 
stimuli  of  killing,  will  be  warlike,  and  cannot  be 
otherwise. 

Animal  behavior  is  full  of  examples  of  action 
patterns  of  fight.  Among  gregarious  animals  the 
head  of  the  herd  fights  rivals  at  sight  and  to  a  finish. 


A   BIOLOGIC  INTERPRETATION  OF  WAR  65 

Deposed  leaders  do  not  fight  each  other.  Man 
and  other  animals  do  not  fight  for  nauseating  food, 
nor  for  the  possession  of  waste  places.  Human 
fight  is  waged  for  food,  shelter,  and  raiment ;  and 
for  mates.  Obviously  no  action  patterns  could 
have  been  established  for  a  struggle  for  poisonous 
food,  for  desert  land,  for  unfit  mates ;  for  evolution 
tends  only  toward  construction,  never  toward  destruc- 
tion, and  evolution  toward  starvation  or  away  from 
procreation  would  lead  inevitably  to  annihilation. 

In  general  we  may  say  that  physical  contest  among 
animals  tends  always  toward  the  survival  of  the 
fittest.  Whether  it  is  a  dog  with  a  bone  amidst  a 
pack  of  hungry  fellows  ;  a  people  with  fertile  land  ; 
or  an  individual  possessing  a  surplus  of  desirable 
necessities  or  who  has  achieved  success, — the  reaction 
in  others  expressed  by  a  struggle  for  possession  is 
normal  and  to  be  expected,  unless  it  is  known  that 
the  fortunate  individual  or  people  will  share  his  or 
their  possessions.  The  individual  habitually  shares. 
Nations  rarely  share. 

The  state  has  a  right  to  a  part  of  the  possessions 
of  the  individual  as  taxes  for  the  benefit  of  all  the 
people.  Where  competition  is  active  the  possessions 
of  one  individual  to-day  may  be  won  by  another  indi- 


66      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

vidual  to-morrow.  Each  individual  hopes  to  come 
into  the  possession  of  surplus  wealth  ;  but  the  wealth 
of  one  free  nation  never  normally  becomes  the 
property  of  another  free  nation,  except  by  trading 
or  by  force.  One  nation  never  bequeathes  property 
to  another ;  no  nation  has  a  chance  of  inheriting  the 
property  of  another  nation.  No  free  nation  pays 
another  nation's  taxes,  therefore  nations  are  more 
selfish  than  individuals.  In  consequence  there  is 
less  attraction  and  more  antagonism  between  nations 
than  between  individuals. 

The  war  reaction  of  a  people  is  the  final  ex- 
pression of  its  action  patterns ;  their  conduct  is 
natural,  inevitable.  They  are  not  to  be  blamed ; 
they  need  to  be  understood.  Nations  having  no 
action  patterns  for  war  need  no  praise  for  their 
peace ;  they  also  need  to  be  understood.  War  and 
peace  can  be  comprehended  only  when  they  are 
considered  as  end  effects  of  action  patterns  estab- 
lished by  phylogeny  and  ontogeny. 


CHAPTER    IV 


CHAPTER   IV 
A   MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  GERMAN  KULTUR 

GERMANY  to-day  stands  as  an  example  of  the 
inevitableness  of  action  patterns.  On  this  concep- 
tion we  cannot  blame  her,  but  it  is  essential  that  we 
understand  her. 

Let  us  suppose  that  at  this  moment  Canada  con- 
tained a  hostile  population  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy-five  million  people,  a  trained  army  of  five 
million,  and  a  chain  of  forts  along  the  boundary. 
Suppose  that  Mexico  were  a  rich,  cultured,  and  brave 
nation  of  forty  million  with  a  deep-rooted  grievance, 
and  an  iron  curtain  at  its  frontier.  Suppose  that 
Cuba  were  the  richest  nation  in  the  world,  and  that 
she  possessed  and  controlled  one  fifth  of  the  earth's 
surface  and  were  the  undisputed  mistress  of  the  sea. 
Let  us  suppose  further  that  these  conditions  had  ex- 
isted for  forty-four  years,  and  that  during  this  time 
action  patterns  in  the  brains  of  the  children  of  the 
United  States  had  been  formed  and  facilitated  for  the 

69 


70       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

killing  of  the  surrounding  rivals  ;  that  during  this  time 
the  United  States  had  learned  that  to  defend  itself, 
it  must  have  efficiency  and  wealth,  and  that  if  the 
people  as  a  whole  were  to  survive,  they  must  re- 
nounce their  individuality,  must  surrender  themselves 
to  the  state,  to  be  used  by  the  state,  for  the  advantage 
of  the  people  themselves.  The  state  being  in  danger, 
and  the  head  of  the  state  being  responsible,  the  state 
would  strive  to  its  utmost  to  effect  self-preservation. 
The  people  of  the  state  seeing  themselves  as  a  collec- 
tive mechanism,  prospering  beyond  their  rivals, 
would  believe  strongly  in  their  system,  and  more 
and  more  would  be  willing  to  surrender  themselves 
to  the  state,  realizing  that  their  individual  labors 
would  be  more  effective  when  guided  by  the  highest 
talent  of  the  few,  the  supermen,  than  when  guided  by 
the  mediocre  talent  of  the  masses.  They  would 
see  everywhere  law  and  order ;  they  would  be  cared 
for  when  sick  and  aged  ;  the  education  and  train- 
ing of  the  masses  would  be  fostered  ;  their  nation 
would  each  year  become  more  secure  in  wealth,  in 
mass  efficiency,  in  armament,  in  science,  in  security 
of  life. 

In  nature  such  a  system  as  this  is  well  known  and 
is  equally  efficient.     It  is  the  system  of  ant  colonies, 


A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  GERMAN   KULTUR      71 

in  which  the  individual  ant  has  been  evolved  to  re- 
nounce its  individual  reaction  for  the  good  of  the 
colony,  and  ultimately  for  the  good  of  the  individual. 
This  is  the  Kultur  of  the  ant  —  and  an  efficient  sys- 
tem it  is,  since  the  ant  next  to  man  most  completely 

dominates  the  earth. 

\ 

Is  this  a  fanciful  conception  ?  It  represents  the 
position  of  Germany  during  the  past  forty-four  years 
and  now,  for  German  Kultur  has  been  made  possible 
only  by  the  powerful  rivals  which  surround  her.  It 
was  obviously  against  this  steady  hostile  breeze 
that  the  ruling  class  of  Germany  flew  its  military 
kite,  and  transformed  the  action  patterns  of  the 
brains  of  sixty  million  people  into  those  of  renun- 
ciation of  individualism,  and  the  acceptance  of 
collectivism.  This  is  obviously  a  Kultur,  —  but  can 
man  be  made  to  respond  to  this  Kultur  in  the  absence 
of  powerful,  threatening  neighbors  ?  Has  the  mech- 
anism of  the  Kultur  elements  of  danger  to  itself? 

In  the  presence  of  a  common  danger,  or  a  danger 
commonly  believed  to  exist,  a  danger  that  threatens 
destruction,  men  and  animals  react  along  purely 
self-preservative  lines.  It  is  only  a  real  danger  that 
has  transformed  the  German  individual  into  a  state 
machine,  has  given  him  the  " es  ist  verboten"  re- 


72       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

action.  On  this  conception  the  action  patterns  and 
the  behavior  of  the  German  seem  natural  and  ex- 
pected. His  dominant  action  patterns  are  for  kill- 
ing and  conquering  his  hostile  neighbors  and  pre- 
serving himself. 

That  the  hive  and  colony  reaction  is  not  an  evolved 
instinct  with  the  German,  but  that  it  is  a  production 
of  his  ontogeny  rather  than  of  phytogeny,  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  the  children  of  the  million  or  more 
German  immigrants  in  America  are  as  individual  as 
are  the  Americans  of  other  stocks.  They  dislike  ver- 
boten  and  wish  to  work  for  themselves.  The  war  adap- 
tation of  Germany  is  seen  in  the  duels  among  officers 
and  students ;  in  the  uniform  customs  and  manners 
of  the  German  people ;  in  their  respect  for  authority 
in  all  walks  of  life  —  in  industry,  in  science,  in 
amusements ;  it  is  seen  in  the  absence  of  national 
sports,  sports  being  representations  of  fight.  War 
is  the  sport  of  the  German. 

There  is  ample  evidence  to  show  that  whether  for 
good  or  ill  the  German  has  reached  a  new  adapta- 
tion, at  least  an  adaptation  new  to  the  present  cycle 
of  history.  Perhaps  in  bygone  days  this  may  have 
been  a  common  adaptation,  but  it  could  be  made 
only  in  the  presence  of  strong  enemies. 


A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  GERMAN  KULTUR      73 

The  ultimate  fate  of  the  German  Kultur  may 
then  be  foreseen.  By  virtue  of  its  sheer  efficiency  it 
has  reached  the  point  at  which  it  feels  itself  equal 
to  making  a  conquest  of  the  world,  and,  like  the 
Athenians,  to  enforcing  its  system  on  a  subjugated 
world. 

Treitschke  and  Nietzsche  have  evolved  an  altru- 
ism based  on  force,  as  against  the  altruism  of  Christ 
based  on  simple  justice.  Germany  in  arms  to- 
day is  Nietzsche's  philosophy.  Its  advantages  are 
startlingly  obvious,  but  are  its  foundations  secure  ? 
Germany  will  ultimately  conquer  or  be  conquered. 
If  she  is  conquered,  her  people  will  believe  that  there 
is  a  flaw  in  the  premises  and  think  their  sacrifice 
was  in  vain.  Should  Germany  win  and  should  she 
conquer  the  world,  then  she  would  lack  the  funda- 
mental motive  force  which  created  Kultur,  —  her 
hostile  neighbors.  She  would  be  a  kite  without  a 
breeze,  a  cancer  that  has  killed  the  body  on  which  it 
fed. 

The  individual  Ally  begins  by  assuming  the  right 
of  the  individual ;  the  German  begins  by  renouncing 
the  right  of  the  individual  and  recognizes  only  the 
right  of  the  state.  The  German  looks  upon  the 
individual  as  building  material,  as  such  possessing 


74      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

only  the  rights  of  brick  and  mortar.  It  is  the  duty 
of  the  individual  to  surrender  his  individuality ;  of 
the  superman  to  build  without  loss  or  obligation. 
In  this  sense  to  Germany  the  invasion  of  Belgium  is 
justified,  because  its  purpose  was  to  further  the  cause 
of  Kultur.  The  individual  citizen  of  Belgium  and 
the  State  of  Belgium  are  isolated  phenomena,  while 
Kultur  is  a  biologic  principle.  As  Nietzsche  puts  it, 
the  strong  should  feed  on  the  weak  and  crush  them 
when  needed.  The  individualist  opposes  these  views. 
Therefore  the  individualist  and  the  Kulturist  esti- 
mate the  invasion  and  the  crushing  of  Belgium 
from  opposite  points  of  view  —  each  being  equally 
sincere  in  his  judgment. 

After  all,  morals  are  only  expressions  of  biologic 
states,  only  results  of  action  patterns ;  and  what 
are  good  morals  from  the  standpoint  of  a  wolf, 
are  bad  morals  from  the  standpoint  of  a  sheep. 

But  again  the  question  rises  :  Can  a  people  through 
force  be  given  action  patterns  against  their  will  ? 
Rome  never  succeeded  in  Romanizing  the  world. 
Rome  tried  to  subjugate  Belgium ;  Belgium  is 
here  —  Rome  has  passed.  Napoleon  failed ;  the 
Moors  failed ;  England  never  assimilated  the  Irish 
nor  the  Scotch  ;  Russia  the  Poles  ;  nor  the  Manchus 


A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  GERMAN  KULTUR      75 

the  Chinese.  England  has  learned  by  a  large  ex- 
perience over  a  considerable  period  of  time  that 
subject  races  cannot  be  altered  by  force.  Germany 
has  not  succeeded  in  extending  her  doctrine  of  cen- 
tralized force  into  her  colonies.  Force  creates  action 
patterns  in  opposition  to,  not  in  consonance  with, 
that  force.  A  people  may  be  brutalized  into  formal 
submission  ;  but  brutal  treatment  results  in  creat- 
ing in  the  brains  of  the  children  the  strongest  action 
patterns  of  opposition  and  of  hatred.  The  con- 
quering enemy  can  never  supplant  the  influence 
of  the  hating  mother  who  plants  action  patterns 
in  the  brains  of  her  children  when  the  shades  are 
drawn. 


CHAPTER    V 

A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  THE  VIVISEC- 
TION OF  BELGIUM 


CHAPTER   V 

A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  THE  VIVISECTION  OF 
BELGIUM 

ACCORDING  to  the  bias  of  the  speaker  or  writer 
the  vivisection  of  Belgium  by  the  German  army 
must  be  considered  as  necessary  strategy  or  inex- 
cusable atrocity.  It  is  not  my  purpose  here,  how- 
ever, to  discuss  from  any  viewpoint  the  ethics  of 
this  forceful  invasion,  but  rather  dispassionately 
to  analyze  in  scientific  terms  its  effect  upon  the 
Belgian  people  themselves. 

German  strategy  required  the  submission  of  Bel- 
gium. Whether  right  or  wrong,  the  purpose  of 
Germany  was  to  strike  down  the  armed  and  the 
unarmed  resistance  of  Belgium  with  massive  and 
overwhelming  force.  To  accomplish  this  it  was 
necessary,  first,  to  defeat  the  Belgian  army ;  and 
second,  to  terrorize  and  subjugate  the  whole  people 
so  that  both  physical  and  moral  resistance  would 
be  impossible. 

Never  in  contact  with  animal  life  is  man  as  cruel 
as  when  he  is  in  destructive  combat  with  his  own 

79 


8o      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

kind.  Though  millions  of  domestic  animals  are 
killed  annually,  the  death  of  each  is  relatively 
instantaneous ;  though  hosts  of  wild  animals  are 
hunted,  they  are,  as  a  rule,  either  killed  instantane- 
ously or,  if  captured,  are  allowed  to  live  in  an 
environment  approximating  their  native  haunts. 
Though  thousands  of  animals  are  used  in  medical  re- 
search, their  sufferings  are  relieved  by  anesthesia. 
Moreover,  in  all  these  injuries  inflicted  upon  animals 
by  man,  emotion  plays  a  relatively  unimportant  part, 
and  the  effects  of  emotion  may  be  greater  and  more 
far-reaching  than  the  effects  of  physical  violence  alone. 
When  a  herd  of  animals  is  dispersed,  they  may  easily 
adapt  themselves  to  a  new  environment,  for  neither 
the  old  nor  the  new  has  been  of  their  own  creation. 
On  the  other  hand,  when  a  nation  of  men  is  dis- 
persed they  leave  behind  the  complicated  machinery 
of  civilization  in  whose  creation  each  has  borne  a 
part,  and  by  means  of  which  the  living  of  each  is 
secured.  For  them  no  new  pastures  wait  with 
ready-made  sustenance,  but  instead  they  must 
create  a  new  web  of  life  through  which  alone  they 
may  wrest  from  the  soil  their  daily  bread.  There- 
fore for  man,  with  his  many  reactions,  with  his 
complicated  emotions,  with  his  intricate  web'  ot 


w      mm 

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SECTION  OF  NORMAL  CEREBELLUM        SECTION     OF    CEREBELLUM    SHOWING 
(x  310)  EFFECT    OF    EXTREME     EMOTION 

(FRIGHT).     (X3io) 


THE  VIVISECTION  OF  BELGIUM  8 1 

life,  there  are  vast  possibilities  for  crushing  moral 
injuries  whose  effects  are  more  destructive  than 
the  effects  of  physical  injuries  alone. 

Let  us  consider  what  would  be  the  expected  result 
of  the  intense  psychic  and  physical  activations 
inflicted  upon  the  Belgians  in  the  light  of  labora- 
tory findings,  bearing  in  mind,  however,  that  in 
no  laboratory  has  the  activation  of  animals  been 
carried  to  such  an  extreme,  or  has  such  suffering 
been  inflicted  as  in  the  vivisection  of  Belgium. 

As  we  have  already  stated,  the  body  of  man  is 
driven  by  his  brain,  which  in  turn  is  driven  by 
stimuli  received  from  the  environment  through 
the  sense  organs.  As  a  result  of  the  transmission 
of  these  stimuli  to  the  brain,  a  certain  portion  of 
the  energy  stored  in  the  brain  is  transformed,  and 
either  muscular  action  or  some  chemical  change  re- 
sults, the  muscular  action  being  for  flight,  fight,  the 
acquisition  of  food,  or  procreation ;  the  chemical 
reaction  for  the  maintenance  of  the  chemical  purity 
of  the  body. 

These  final  responses  are  made  possible  by  the 
system  of  organs  which  constitutes  the  kinetic 
system,  —  the  brain,  the  adrenals,  the  liver,  the 
thyroid,  and  the  muscles.  In  my  laboratory  it  has 


82       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

been  shown  that  as  a  result  of  emotion  —  fear  or 
anger,  physical  injury,  exertion,  as  well  as  of  many 
other  kinds  of  activation,  physical  changes  are 
produced  in  these  organs  and  the  normal  potential 
alkalinity  of  the  body  is  diminished.  Clinical  ob- 
servations as  well  as  the  examination  of  the  organs 
of  patients  who  have  died  from  various  causes 
demonstrate  clearly  that  in  human  beings  as  in 
animals,  insomnia,  physical  injury,  physical  exer- 
tion, fear,  anger,  grief,  homesickness  —  any  intense 
emotion  —  produce  physical  lesions  in  the  organs 
of  the  kinetic  system. 

When  the  brain  is  overwhelmingly  stimulated 
many  brain  cells  are  permanently  destroyed.  At 
birth  man  has  several  millions  of  brain  cells,  but 
if  a  brain  cell  is  destroyed  it  is  not  replaced. 
Therefore  every  overwhelming  activation  by  phys- 
ical or  psychic  stimuli  results  in  the  permanent 
loss  of  a  certain  number  of  brain  cells.  The  whole 
structure  of  the  brain  is  altered  and  the  action 
patterns  formed  by  the  environmental  relations  of 
a  lifetime  are  changed  so  that  normal  reactions 
can  no  longer  be  expressed.  In  other  words,  the 
individual  becomes  permanently  impaired.  The 
woman  who  has  seen  her  husband  assaulted  or 


SECTION  OF  NORMAL  ADRENAL 
(X  1640) 


SECTION  OF  ADRENAL  SHOWING  EFFECT 
OF  EXTREME  EMOTION  (FRIGHT) 
(x  1640) 


THE  VIVISECTION  OF  BELGIUM  83 

killed,  who  has  seen  her  home  burned,  who  has  seen 
her  daughter  outraged,  who  has  seen  her  children 
starving,  is  herself  permanently  modified  ;  she  may 
become  neurasthenic,  depressed,  morose,  sleepless, 
even  insane,  and  in  any  case  her  mechanism  suffers 
a  permanent  injury. 

Because  of  the  relation  between  the  brain  and 
the  other  organs  in  the  kinetic  system,  prolonged 
emotional  stimulation  results  in  such  a  steady 
activation  of  these  organs  —  especially  of  the 
liver,  the  adrenals,  and  the  thyroid,  that  one  or 
another  of  them  yields  under  the  strain  and  one  or 
another  disease  is  established.  These  facts  make 
it  possible  for  us  to  understand  what  must  have 
been  the  immediate  result  and  to  predict  the  re- 
mote effect  of  the  overwhelming  activations  which 
were  forced  upon  the  Belgians. 

The  kinetic  systems  of  the  Belgians  were  activated 
by  both  contact  and  distance  ceptor  stimuli.  Their 
contact  ceptors  were  stimulated  by  bullets,  by  bay- 
onets and  by  physical  assault.  Their  distance  cep- 
tors were  stimulated  by  threatening  aircraft,  by 
charging  Uhlans,  by  the  shooting  and  torture  of  rela- 
tives and  friends ;  by  the  confiscation  of  their  pos- 
sessions ;  by  the  separation  of  families ;  by  the 


84       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

destruction  of  their  treasures,  their  art,  their  litera- 
ture, and  their  institutions  of  learning.  As  this  stimu- 
lation was  continuous,  the  kinetic  systems  of  the  Bel- 
gians could  not  be  restored  by  adequate  sleep.  Later, 
when  they  were  driven  out  of  their  homes,  there 
was  added  the  activation  of  constant  homesickness. 

Millions  of  individuals  were  subjected  to  this 
vivisection,  while  our  experiments  upon  animals 
have  been  limited  to  a  few  hundred.  The  activa- 
tion of  the  Belgians  was  continued  day  and  night 
for  weeks  and  months,  in  fact  will  continue  for 
years,  while  our  experiments  on  animals  last  but  a 
few  hours.  The  subjects  of  our  experiments  have 
only  a  few  simple  mechanisms.  The  Belgians  have 
the  vast  human  endowment  of  a  highly-developed 
brain.  Animals  used  in  medical  research  are 
anesthetized  and  the  period  of  their  activation 
is  promptly  ended  by  death  under  anesthesia. 
The  vast  majority  of  the  Belgian  people  were  denied 
the  solace  of  painless  death,  and  only  the  surcease 
which  comes  from  exhaustion  could  diminish  their 
suffering.  It  should  be  remembered  also  that  in 
this  human  experiment  performed  by  ruthless  op- 
erators in  a  country-wide  laboratory,  each  indi- 
vidual was  subjected  to  many —  some  to  all  —  of 


SECTION  OF  NORMAL  LIVER 
(x  1640) 


B 

SECTION  OF  LIVER  SHOWING  EFFECT 
OF  EXTREME  EMOTION  (FRIGHT) 
(x  1640) 


THE  VIVISECTION  OF  BELGIUM  85 

the  foregoing  activations,  while  in  our  laboratories 
each  animal  is  subjected  to  but  one  form  of  activation. 
If  our  conclusions  are  correct,  then  the  first  effect 
of  these  stimuli  upon  the  human  organism  would 
be  a  mobilization  of  the  energizing  secretions  and 
of  the  energizing  chemical  stores  in  the  activating 
glands  of  their  bodies,  —  hyperchromatism  of  the 
brain  cells ;  increased  circulation  of  blood  in  the 
thyroid  gland  and  increased  output  of  thyreoiodin ; 
an  increased  output  of  adrenalin ;  and  an  increased 
output  of  glycogen  by  the  liver.  As  a  consequence 
of  this  mobilization  of  the  forces  within  the  body, 
which  we  have  compared  to  the  mobilization  of 
the  military  forces  of  a  nation,  the  body  would 
attain  its  maximum  strength  for  fight  or  flight. 
As  a  result  of  the  supreme  effort  of  flight  or  fight 
or  its  equivalent  in  emotion,  the  alkalinity  of  the 
body  fluids  would  be  diminished  and  this  increased 
acidity  of  the  body  would  produce  rapid  respiration, 
rapid  pulse,  increased  urinary  output,  and  sweating. 
Cases  of  sudden  heart  failure  would  result  from  the 
increased  blood  pressure  caused  by  the  increased 
adrenalin  output ;  and  increased  adrenalin  output 
and  acidity  would  cause  many  cases  of  miscarriage. 
In  the  integration  for  fight  or  flight  the  digestive 


86       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

processes  would  be  inhibited,  and  among  both  the 
immediate  and  later  results  of  this  inhibition  would 
be  auto-intoxication  and  indigestion.  Individuals 
having  Bright's  disease  would  be  expected  to  show 
an  increase  of  symptoms  or  would  be  driven  to 
immediate  renal  failure,  coma,  and  death.  Indi- 
viduals with  cardiovascular  disease  would  be  in 
danger  of  immediate  death  from  apoplexy. 

As  a  result  of  the  intensity  of  the  activation  the 
action  patterns  of  the  brain  would  be  wholly  dis- 
arranged. The  normal  action  patterns  of  the  peace- 
ful routine  of  family,  social,  and  vocational  relations, 
heretofore  balanced  and  even,  would  of  necessity 
be  dispossessed  by  the  intense  stimulation  of  the 
action  patterns  of  fight  or  flight. 

Since  activation  causes  a  lowering  of  the  brain 
thresholds  to  stimuli,  neurasthenia  would  result 
in  some  cases ;  overwhelming  stimulation  might 
cause  a  disastrous  facilitation  of  response,  and 
insanity  would  result ;  rupture  of  blood  vessels 
in  the  brain  would  cause  paralysis;  and  the  de- 
struction of  a  great  number  of  brain  cells  as  a  result 
of  exhaustion  would  result  in  permanent  loss  of 
efficiency.  The  increased  acidity  would  activate 
the  respiratory  center,  cause  excessive  sweating 


THE  VIVISECTION  OF  BELGIUM  87 

and  rapid  heart  action,  and  would  activate  the  liver. 
In  addition  acidity  would  inhibit  the  activity  of 
the  cerebral  cortex  and  thus  mental  and  muscular 
power  would  be  diminished. 

One  would  expect  the  early  death  of  those  whose 
margins  of  safety  were  slender,  —  the  aged  and 
those  having  chronic  diseases.  As  a  result  of  the 
excessive  transformation  of  energy  and  the  want  of 
rest  and  sleep  one  would  expect  loss  in  weight,  and 
as  in  cases  of  Graves'  disease,  in  which  the  kinetic 
system  is  subject  to  a  continuous  excessive  activa- 
tion, one  would  expect  the  Belgians  to  live  years  in 
months,  and  in  consequence  by  so  much  to  cut  off 
the  total  number  of  expected  years  of  life. 

That  we  have  not  exaggerated  what  the  protocols 
of  this  vast  experiment  would  lead  us  to  expect  is 
proved  by  the  evidence  of  many  observers.  There 
have  been  many  sudden  deaths ;  many  cases  of 
insomnia ;  of  neurasthenia ;  of  prostration ;  of 
lost  spirit  and  impaired  efficiency ;  and  generally 
a  loss  of  hope  and  ambition.  There  has  been  an 
average  loss  of  from  six  to  ten  pounds  in  weight. 
Many  Belgians  were  found  dead  in  their  beds  with- 
out external  injuries,  and  many  died  after  a  brief 
illness.  (A  number  of  cases  of  apoplexy  were  seen.) 


88       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

Children  were  prematurely  born  on  the  streets,  in 
railway  stations,  or  on  trains.  There  have  already 
been  many  suicides  —  among  children  as  well  as 
among  adults ;  and  children  as  well  as  adults  have 
become  insane. 

It  is  to  be  expected  that  these  conditions  will 
continue  and  progress,  and  that  there  will  be  an 
increasing  number  of  cases  of  Bright's  disease  and 
apoplexy.  The  posthumous  children  have  been 
robbed  of  their  birthright  of  healthy  bodies  and 
stable  nervous  systems.  The  little  children  whose 
action  patterns  had  not  been  formed  are  the  only 
ones  who  may  bear  their  rude  transplantation 
without  loss  of  mental  or  physical  efficiency.  The 
Belgian  exiles  whom  I  have  seen  show  a  loss  in  mo- 
rale ;  they  are  preoccupied,  absent-minded,  diseased, 
homesick,  weak,  dejected,  bitter,  and  broken.  They 
have  suffered  a  permanent  loss  which  is  beyond 
compensation  and  beyond  redemption.  Thus  mil- 
lions of  men,  women,  children,  and  unborn  infants 
have  been  subjected  to  a  vivisection  of  unparalleled 
cruelty  unsurpassed  in  the  history  of  man  or  of  the 
lower  animals.  It  is  as  if  upon  Belgium  as  a  whole, 
every  degree  of  physical,  mental  and  moral  torture 
had  been  inflicted  without  anesthesia.  In  fact,  in  the 


THE  VIVISECTION  OF  BELGIUM  89 

present   condition  of  the    Belgian  exiles  their  pro- 
gressive moral  vivisection  still  continues. 

Having  interpreted  the  Belgian  phenomena  from 
a  mechanistic  viewpoint,  what  does  the  mechan- 
istic viewpoint  suggest  for  the  future  of  the  Bel- 
gians ?  Although  the  Belgian  dead  cannot  be 
resurrected,  although  the  lost  brain  cells  cannot  be 
replaced ;  although  the  damaged  organs  cannot 
be  restored  ;  although  the  foundations  of  health  are 
permanently  weakened, — a  mechanistic  viewpoint 
would  suggest  the  mediation  of  the  further  progress 
of  physical  and  moral  destruction  by  repairing  the 
homes  and  fortunes  of  these  exiles,  by  reuniting 
their  families,  by  giving  them  means  for  reestab- 
lishing their  universities,  and  by  so  changing  the  en- 
vironmental mold  —  so  altering  the  web  of  life- 
that  their  further  vivisection  would  be  diminished. 


CHAPTER    VI 

EVOLUTION  TOWARD   PEACE 


CHAPTER  VI 
EVOLUTION  TOWARD  PEACE 

GREAT  disasters  lift  for  a  moment  the  veil  drawn 
by  peace  and  prosperity  over  the  dangerous  elements, 
ever-present  not  only  in  the  environment  of  man  but 
in  his  own  nature  as  well.  Occasional  rumblings 
within  Vesuvius  may  warn  a  few  of  the  dwellers  upon 
the  mountain  side  of  the  dangerous  forces  beneath 
them ;  but  by  the  multitude  warnings  are  disre- 
garded until  the  mountain  discloses  its  nature  by  an 
overwhelming  eruption.  So,  in  times  of  peace  man 
disregards  the  threatening  evidences  of  his  true 
nature  which  are  ever-manifest  in  daily  jealousies 
and  competitions  and  in  petty  wars,  and  not  till 
the  full  horror  of  a  mighty  conflict  is  upon  him 
does  he  realize  the  power  of  his  own  fight-lustful 
nature.  Now  that  a  great  war  once  again  has  drawn 
the  veil,  it  is  possible,  if  we  are  able  to  make  a  final 
analysis  of  what  is  disclosed,  that  we  may  discover 
the  manner  in  which  those  very  forces  which  made 

93 


94      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

this  war  possible  and  inevitable  may  be  utilized 
to  strengthen  the  bonds  of  peace,  just  as  natural 
elements  once  feared,  even  worshiped,  because 
of  their  menace  to  man's  safety,  are  now  made 
subservient  to  his  welfare. 

As  a  result  of  his  mastery  over  the  forces  of  nature 
man  exacts  from  the  earth  a  living  and  a  surplus. 
Having  an  excess  of  food,  shelter,  and  clothing  he 
no  longer  practices  infanticide,  —  but  for  no  better 
reason.  Having  an  excess  of  food,  shelter,  and  cloth- 
ing, having  established  law  and  order  and  conven- 
tions ;  woman,  the  race  breeder,  the  ancient  cul- 
tivator of  the  fields  ;  woman,  the  property  of  hunting, 
fighting  man,  has  gone  to  school,  and  has  begun  to 
assist  in  the  management  of  the  new  machinery 
of  civilization. 

When  the  novelty  of  this  new  estate  shall  have 
worn  off,  perhaps  man  and  woman  together  will 
solve  the  problems  of  the  propagation  and  the  care 
of  the  human  race  as  intelligently  and  as  practically 
as  they  have  worked  out  the  problem  of  the  propaga- 
tion and  the  care  of  their  domestic  animals.  It  may 
be  that  woman's  effort  to  secure  the  franchise  is  but 
the  surface  indication  of  a  great  biologic  movement 
-  one  that  women  themselves  do  not  fully  under- 


EVOLUTION  TOWARD  PEACE  95 

stand  any  more  than  the  chick  struggling  out  of  its 
shell  understands  that  it  is  in  the  process  of  being 
born. 

Perhaps  the  present  feminist  agitation  will  bring 
a  favorable  change  in  human  destiny.  When  we 
consider  that  woman  was  evolved  to  preserve,  to 
perpetuate  the  species ;  that  in  the  course  of  that 
evolution  she  developed  altruistic  traits  —  traits 
which  are  the  logical  results  of  her  care  for  her 
children  —  it  would  seem  that  there  must  now 
also  be  evolved  within  her  a  great  fundamental 
reaction  against  the  harshness  of  man.  This 
harshness,  this  pugnacity,  this  greed  for  killing, 
was  put  into  man  through  evolution,  and  it  can- 
not be  mitigated  save  through  further  evolution. 
Perhaps  one  of  the  influences  in  this  further  evolu- 
tion will  be  woman's  natural  reaction  against  need- 
less violence. 

Whatever  the  future  may  bring,  however,  man 
to-day  betrays  at  every  turn  that  he  is  in  reality  a 
red-handed  glutton  whose  phylogenetic  action  pat- 
terns are  facilitated  for  the  killing  of  his  own  and 
of  other  species  ;  that  with  all  of  his  beneficent  control 
of  the  forces  of  nature,  he  has  created  also  vast  forces 
for  his  own  destruction,  so  vast  that  civilized  man 


96      A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

is  to-day  in  a  death  struggle  with  the  Frankenstein 
of  his  own  creation ;  that,  although  he  controls  a 
world  of  limitless  force  and  endless  machinery,  he 
yet  fails  to  control  that  all-important  mechanism 
-  himself.  Can  this  animal,  bloodthirsty  by  nature 
and  training,  who  produces  and  kills  millions  of 
animals  yearly  and  who  kills  at  intervals  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  his  fellow-men  —  can  he  be  so  modi- 
fied as  to  live  in  relative  peace  ?  Can  man  in  the 
possession  of  the  power  to  create,  minimize  his  ten- 
dency towards  self-destruction  ? 

A  suggestion  as  to  how  this  may  be  done  is  seen 
in  the  method  by  which  the  killing  reactions  are 
diminished  in  other  fighting  animals  —  animals 
evolved  to  be  life  destroyers  even  more  than  man. 
For  example,  the  action  patterns  of  the  dog,  the 
preservation  of  whose  ancestors  depended  on  their 
killing  other  animals,  have  been  so  modified  by  man 
that  now  the  peace  element  in  his  action  patterns 
has  been  augmented  and  his  killing  patterns  dimin- 
ished. Thus  through  breeding  and  through  train- 
ing has  the  brain  of  the  dog  been  modified.  If 
the  dog,  whose  reactions  are  in  comparison  to  those 
of  man  so  few,  whose  brain  has  not  acquired  through 
phylogeny  facilitated  paths  of  action  for  mutual 


EVOLUTION  TOWARD  PEACE  97 

help,  even  for  herd  existence,  —  if  the  mechanism 
of  the  dog  has  been  so  successfully  modified  by  man, 
what  limit  can  be  set  to  the  modification  of  the 
action  patterns  of  man  by  education  and  training 
planned  for  the  strengthening  of  the  action  patterns 
of  peace  ? 

If  we  have  not  heretofore  found  a  means  of  pre- 
venting war,  we  have  at  least  found  that  certain 
things  cannot  prevent  war ;  we  know  that  our  pres- 
ent system  of  education  cannot  prevent  war ;  we 
know  that  commercial  relations,  even  treaties,  can- 
not prevent  war ;  we  know  that  the  burden  of  debt, 
bankruptcy,  and  the  resultant  grind  of  poverty 
cannot  prevent  war ;  we  know  that  religion  and  mili- 
tary systems,  and  even  the  fear  of  wounds  and  hun- 
ger, of  suffering  and  death,  cannot  prevent  war ;  in 
short,  the  very  civilization  of  to-day  is  itself  at  war ! 
The  civilization  of  to-day  cannot  prevent  war,  be- 
cause under  existing  conditions  war  is  inevitable ; 
because  it  is  the  normal  result  of  the  action  patterns, 
created  by  the  mold  in  which  has  been  formed  the 
present  generation  of  men. 

The  earliest  predisposing  cause  of  the  present  War 
of  Nations  was  the  establishment  of  an  action  pat- 
tern of  war  in  the  first  child  who  as  a  man  is  now 


98       A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

concerned  therein.  This  event  was  a  microscopic 
declaration  of  war.  Multiples  of  like  action  patterns 
made  inevitable  the  final  declaration  of  war  between 
the  nations.  Therefore,  like  Prometheus,  man  is 
chained  to  the  rock  of  fate,  unless  a  new  philosophy 
be  introduced  ;  unless  the  web  of  life  of  the  majority 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  be  so  modified  that 
in  the  next  generation  peace  patterns  shall  be  in- 
creased and  war  patterns  lessened. 

How  may  this  be  accomplished  ?  An  analysis  of 
man's  adaptive  response  to  the  web  of  life  may  show 
the  way,  since  conduct  is  the  result  of  both  phylogeny 
(species  experience)  and  ontogeny  (individual  expe- 
rience). 

The  offspring  of  animals  at  the  time  of  birth  are 
slightly  if  at  all  equipped  to  adapt  themselves  to 
environment ;  the  simpler  the  reaction  of  a  species, 
the  earlier  is  its  mechanism  for  adaptation  completed. 
Hence  we  find  for  the  young  of  each  species  different 
methods  and  different  periods  of  time  for  completing 
their  adaptation  for  adult  life,  varying  from  the 
simple  adaptation  of  the  fish,  that  never  even  knows 
its  parents,  to  the  increasingly  complex  adaptations 
of  the  birds,  whose  parents  protect,  feed,  and  give 
them  their  simple  training  ;  of  the  beaver,  whose  off- 


THE  C'n  \K(.J 


EVOLUTION  TOWARD  PEACE  99 

spring  are  taught  even  to  play  at  making  dams  ;  and 
finally  of  the  gregarious  animals  whose  young  remain 
with  the  flock  or  herd  and  are  taught  by  example. 
The  carnivora  train  their  young  to  kill,  and  the  young 
of  monkeys,  whose  survival  depends  upon  an  adapta- 
tion to  continual  alertness,  receive  from  their  parents 
a  careful  training  in  strategy.  To  accomplish  this 
longer  tutelage  required  by  the  anthropoids,  the 
parents  keep  their  offspring  with  them  during  a  longer 
period  of  time,  and  thus  is  formed  the  family  —  the 
dawn  of  human  society.  From  the  periods  of 
training  and  education  received  by  the  young  of 
anthropoids  we  pass  to  the  progressively  longer 
periods  required  for  the  training  of  the  Bushman, 
the  cave  man,  the  semi-civilized,  and  finally  the 
civilized  man. 

The  brain  of  man  may  be  likened  to  a  moving- 
picture  film  running  from  birth  to  death.  Among 
the  numberless  pictures  some  obtain  possession  of 
the  final  common  path,  or  become  adequate  stimuli. 
Those  that  become  adequate  stimuli  produce  action 
patterns,  the  responses  of  which  to  repetitions  of  the 
stimuli  by  which  they  were  produced  make  up  the 
conduct  of  the  individual.  In  other  words,  man's 
action  patterns  reflect  as  in  a  mirror  his  environment. 


100    A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

If  a  colt  grows  up  in  the  wilds,  it  becomes  a  wild 
horse  ;  if  bred  by  man,  its  action  patterns  are  domes- 
tic. The  young  of  all  animals  are  plastic.  The 
child  of  man  is  most  plastic.  If  a  child  remain  in 
a  Christian  portion  of  the  web  of  life,  Christian  ac- 
tion patterns  are  formed  ;  if  in  a  pagan  web,  he 
becomes  pagan ;  if  in  a  peaceful  web,  peaceful  ac- 
tion patterns  result ;  if  in  a  warlike  web,  warlike 
patterns  are  inevitable.  The  brain  patterns  that 
dominate  at  the  close  of  the  adolescent  and  at  the 
beginning  of  the  adult  period  fix  and  determine  until 
death  the  life  reactions  of  the  individual.  The 
action  patterns  thus  formed  in  the  plastic  brain  con- 
stitute the  personality  of  the  individual  and  make 
the  reactions  of  the  human  mechanism  as  inevitable 
and  as  true  as  are  the  reactions  of  a  man-made 
machine.  A  wheelbarrow  cannot  perform  the  work 
of  an  automobile,  but  the  difference  between  the 
wheelbarrow  and  the  automobile  is  less  than  the 
difference  between  the  cannibal  and  the  scholar. 

The  environment  therefore  is  the  mold  which 
predetermines  the  man.  If  for  a  generation  every 
newborn  babe  of  China  could  be  interchanged  with 
every  newborn  babe  of  France,  the  web  of  life  of 
China  would  create  Chinese  action  patterns  in  the 


( •opyrlght  by  Hora-e  K.  Turwr  r,,  .  j  1 1  <  'l^n-M  l..n  ~c     lioototi.  Man. 

THE  CALL  TO  ARMS  AND  THK  END  RESULT 


EVOLUTION  TOWARD  PEACE 

brains  of  the  French  children  ;  and  the  web  of  life 
of  France  would  create  French  action  patterns  in  the 
brains  of  the  Chinese  children.  But  relatively  China 
would  still  remain  China  and  France  would  remain 
France.  Thus  if  the  offspring  of  any  two  alien 
people  whose  brains  are  comparable  in  size  and 
plasticity  be  interchanged,  the  action  patterns  of 
the  brains  of  the  children  will  be  modified,  but  the 
web  of  life  in  each  nation  will  remain  fixed.  The 
molten  metal  adapts  itself  to  the  mold  —  the  mold 
remains  unchanged.  The  only  way  by  which  the 
action  patterns  of  a  people  can  be  altered  is  by  chang- 
ing the  mold  —  altering  the  environment.  Thus 
slowly  science  and  invention  and  human  experience 
modify  the  mold  which  stamps  generations  to  come. 

In  America  the  plastic  newborn  of  many  races  and 
nationalities  are  gathered  and  are  so  melted  and 
molded  in  our  public  schools  that  the  second  genera- 
tion of  European  origin  can  scarcely  be  distinguished 
from  those  of  Mayflower  descent. 

Therefore,  if  we  desire  that  in  our  children  action 
patterns  of  peace  shall  predominate  over  war  pat- 
terns, the  disadvantages  of  war  as  well  as  its 
advantages  should  be  set  forth  in  the  nursery,  the 
school,  and  the  university;  in  daily  papers,  maga- 


102    A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR   AND  PEACE 

zines,  and  books.  In  the  web  of  life  of  childhood, 
as  well  as  of  maturity,  the  consequences  of  war  should 
be  as  prominent  as  the  glory  of  war.  The  thrilling 
departure  of  patriot  husband  or  son  should  be  paral- 
leled by  the  somber  desertion  of  wife  or  mother  ;  the 
glory  of  the  bayonet  charge  by  its  disembowelled 
victims ;  the  report  of  the  staff  commander  by  that 
of  the  surgeon  general ;  the  monument  to  the  vic- 
torious general  by  the  rude  cross  on  the  grave  ot 
the  private  soldier ;  the  brilliant  uniform  by  the 
rags  of  poverty ;  the  rejoicing  of  the  victors  by 
the  enduring  hate  of  the  vanquished.  The  happi- 
ness and  serenity  of  life  should  be  contrasted  with 
the  illogical  ending  of  life  through  war. 

Children  should  be  taught  to  regard  as  heroes 
those  also  who  have  made  possible  the  conquest  of 
nature  through  invention  and  discovery ;  those  who 
have  striven  for  and  have  achieved  great  ideals  of 
government,  of  education,  of  science  and  of  morals. 
Peace  has  as  worthy  heroes  as  has  war! 

When  man  comprehends  his  own  mechanism, 
when  he  understands  the  dominating  influence  of 
his  progenitors  and  appreciates  the  infinite  possi- 
bilities of  his  training,  then  he  may  reach  a  grade 
of  civilization  which  will  enable  him  to  invigorate 


EVOLUTION  TOWARD  PEACE  103 

himself  without  ruin.  Struggle  is  a  biological  neces- 
sity, and  even  war  is  preferable  to  pusillanimous 
peace  leading  to  degeneracy. 

When  the  mechanistic  viewpoint  is  generally  un- 
derstood, a  viewpoint  that  fixes  all  responsibility 
for  human  action  here  and  now  within  one's  self; 
that  teaches  that  one  generation  predetermines 
the  action  of  the  next  generation  ;  that  the  newborn 
infant  is  only  the  plastic  clay  from  which  the  real 
man  is  created,  —  a  new  meaning  will  be  given  to  edu- 
cation. Then  we  may  be  intelligent  enough  to  have 
the  greatest  talent  of  the  country,  not  at  the  head  of 
armies,  or  strategy  boards,  not  in  finance  or  industry, 
but  at  the  head  of  the  state  educational  systems. 
Backed  by  money  and  public  opinion,  a  group  of 
supermen  may  evolve  a  system  of  mechanistic  train- 
ing which  will  mold  the  next  generation  into  a  higher 
degree  of  adaptation  to  environment  —  an  increased 
fitness  for  service  to  country  and  to  fellow-citizens. 
Man  at  last  may  see  that  his  destiny  is  in  his  own 
hands  and  that  there  is  no  active  supernatural 
power  that  will  help  or  hinder  his  career;  in  fact, 
that  his  destiny  in  part  has  been  determined  by  his 
evolution  —  but  that  the  balance  is  to  be  man- 
made  here  and  now. 


104    A  MECHANISTIC  VIEW  OF  WAR  AND  PEACE 

If  the  human  animal  were  under  the  domination 
of  beings  as  superior  to  him,  as  man  is  superior 
to  the  domestic  animals,  we  might  expect  that 
education  would  be  exploited  as  efficiently  as  war  has 
been  exploited  and  that  there  might  be  built  up  a 
civilization  freed  to  some  extent  from  its  menacing 
phylogeny. 


'HE    following    pages   contain   advertisements   of 
books  by  the  same  author  or  on  kindred  subjects. 


Man  An  Adaptive  Mechanism 

BY  GEORGE  W.   CRILE,  M.D. 

Professor  of  Surgery,  School  of  Medicine,  Western  Reserve  University  ; 
Visiting  Surgeon  to  the  Lakeside  Hospital,  Cleveland 

EDITED  BY  ANNETTE  AUSTIN,  A.B. 

Illustrated,  Cloth,  8vo 

The  subject  of  Dr.  Crile's  book  is  an  interpretation 
of  the  phenomena  of  health  and  disease  in  the  light 
of  their  origin  in  conditions  of  the  internal  and  ex- 
ternal environment  of  man's  body  during  its  age-long 
evolutionary  struggle  for  adaptation  to  its  physical 
medium.  It  is  an  attempt  to  show  that  the  phenomena 
of  pathologic  processes  —  acute  and  chronic  diseases 
—  no  less  than  the  phenomena  of  normal  living  — 
emotion,  work,  ambition,  ideals  —  are  the  outcome  of 
this  ancient  continuous  friction  which  has  resulted, 
likewise,  in  the  evolution  in  the  body  of  a  system  of 
organs  consisting  of  the  brain,  adrenal,  liver,  thyroid, 
muscles,  the  function  of  which  —  coordinating  in  har- 
mony or  disharmony  with  the  activating  stimuli  of  the 
environment  —  is  to  produce  the  adaptive  responses 
which  are  recognized  now  as  normal  processes,  now 
as  abnormal  reactions. 


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The  Pentecost  of  Calamity 


BY  OWEN  WISTER 

Author  of"  The  Virginian,"  etc. 

Boards,  idmo,  50  cents 

The  author  of  "The  Virginian  "  has  written  a  new  book  which  describes, 
more  forcibly  and  clearly  than  any  other  account  so  far  published,  the 
meaning,  to  America,  of  the  tragic  changes  which  are  taking  place  in  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  the  German  people. 

Written  with  ease  and  charm  of  style,  it  is  prose  that  holds  the  reader 
for  its  very  beauty,  even  as  it  impresses  him  with  its  force.  It  is  doubtful 
whether  there  will  come  out  of  the  entire  mass  of  war  literature  a  more 
understanding  or  suggestive  survey. 

"  Owen  Wister  has  depicted  the  tragedy  of  Germany  and  has  hinted  at  the  possible 
tragedy  of  the  United  States.  .  .  .  We  wish  it  could  be  read  in  full  by  every  American." 

—  The  Outlook. 


The  Military  Unpreparedness  of  the  United 

States 

BY  FREDERIC  L.  HUIDEKOPER 

Cloth,  8vo 

By  many  army  officers  the  author  of  this  work  is  regarded  as  the  fore- 
most military  expert  in  the  United  States.  For  nine  years  he  has  been 
striving  to  awaken  the  American  people  to  a  knowledge  of  the  weaknesses 
of  their  land  forces  and  the  defencelessness  of  the  country.  Out  of  his  ex- 
tensive study  and  research  he  has  compiled  the  present  volume,  which 
represents  the  last  word  on  this  subject.  It  comes  at  a  time  when  its  im- 
portance cannot  be  overestimated,  and  in  the  eight  hundred  odd  pages 
given  over  to  the  discussion  there  are  presented  facts  and  arguments  with 
which  every  citizen  should  be  familiar.  Mr.  Huidekoper's  writings  in  this 
field  are  already  well  known.  These  hitherto,  however,  have  been  largely 
confined  to  magazines  and  pamphlets,  but  his  book  deals  with  the  matters 
under  consideration  with  that  frankness  and  authority  evidenced  in  these 
previous  contributions  and  much  more  comprehensively. 


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The  World  War: 

How  it  Looks  to  the  Nations  Involved  and  What  it  Means  to  Us 
BY  ELBERT    FRANCIS   BALDWIN 

Decorated  cloth,  izmo,  J/  jy 

The  present  war  in  Europe  has  called  forth  a  great  many 
books  bearing  on  its  different  phases,  but  in  the  majority  of 
instances  these  have  been  written  from  the  standpoint  of  some 
one  of  the  nations.  Elbert  Francis  Baldwin  has  here,  how- 
ever, brought  together  within  the  compass  of  a  single  volume 
a  survey  of  the  entire  field. 

Mr.  Baldwin  was  in  Europe  at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities. 
He  mingled  with  the  people,  observing  their  spirit  and  tem- 
per more  intimately  than  it  has  been  permitted  most  writers 
to  do,  and  in  consequence  the  descriptions  which  he  gives  of 
the  German,  or  French,  or  English,  or  Russian  attitude  are 
truer  and  more  complete  than  those  found  in  previous  studies 
of  the  war. 

A  Journal  of  Impressions  in  Belgium 

BY  MAY   SINCLAIR 

Cloth,  fimo,  $t.jo 

May  Sinclair  is  the  latest  English  author  who  has  written 
a  book  as  the  outgrowth  of  the  war,  and  a  most  unusual  and 
fascinating  book  it  is,  too.  It  is  entitled  "  A  Journal  of  Im- 
pressions in  Belgium  "  and  records  the  mental  effect  produced 
by  the  war  upon  the  distinguished  novelist  when  she  went  to 
the  front  with  an  ambulance  corps.  The  journal  cannot 
properly  be  termed  a  war  book ;  it  is,  rather,  a  May  Sinclair 
book  in  that  it  deals  with  her  reaction  to  the  fighting  and  the 
experiences  through  which  she  passed,  and  not  with  the 
military  or  technical  side  of  the  engagements.  It  is  perhaps 
as  graphic  a  picture  as  has  yet  come  to  America  from  the 
war  zone. 

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Russia  and  the  World 


BY  STEPHEN  GRAHAM 

Author  of"  With  the  Russian  Pilgrims  to  Jerusalem,"  "With  Poor  Immi- 
grants to  America,"  etc. 

Illustrated,  cloth,  8vo,  $2.00 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  present  European  war  Mr.  Graham  was  in  Russia, 
and  his  book  opens,  therefore,  with  a  description  of  the  way  the  news  of 
war  was  received  on  the  Chinese  frontier,  one  thousand  miles  from  a  rail- 
way station,  where  he  happened  to  be  when  the  Tsar's  summons  came. 
Following  this  come  other  chapters  on  Russia  and  the  War,  considering 
such  questions  as,  Is  It  a  Last  War  ?,  Why  Russia  is  Fighting,  The  Eco- 
nomic Isolation  of  Russia,  An  Aeroplane  Hunt  at  Warsaw,  Suffering 
Poland  :  A  Belgium  of  the  East,  and  The  Soldier  and  the  Cross. 

"  It  shows  the  author  creeping  as  near  as  he  was  allowed  to  the  firing 
line.  It  gives  broad  views  of  difficult  questions,  like  the  future  of  the 
Poles  and  the  Jews.  It  rises  into  high  politics,  forecasts  the  terms  of  peace 
and  the  rearrangement  of  the  world,  east  and  west,  that  may  follow.  But 
the  salient  thing  in  it  is  its  interpretation  for  Western  minds  of  the  spirit 
of  Russia."  —  London  Times. 


German  World  Policies 

(Der  Deutsche  Gedanke  in  der  Welt) 
BY  PAUL   ROHRBACH 

Translated  by  DR.  EDMUND  VON  MACH 

Cloth,  izmo, 

Paul  Rohrbach  has  been  for  several  years  the  most  popular  author  of 
books  on  politics  and  economics  in  Germany.  He  is  described  by  his 
translator  as  a  "constructive  optimist,"  one  who,  at  the  same  time,  is  an 
incisive  critic  of  those  shortcomings  which  have  kept  Germany,  as  he  thinks, 
from  playing  the  great  part  to  which  she  is  called.  In  this  volume  Dr. 
Rohrbach  gives  a  true  insight  into  the  character  of  the  German  people, 
their  aims,  fears,  and  aspirations. 

"  Dr.  von  Mach  renders  an  extraordinary  service  to  his  country  in  making 
known  to  English  readers  at  this  time  a  book  like  Rohrbach's." 

—  New  York  Globe. 

"  A  clear  insight  into  Prussian  ideals."  —  Boston  Transcript. 

"  A  valuable,  significant,  and  most  informing  book." 

—  New  York  Tribune. 


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AN   IMPORTANT   NEW   WORK 

With  the  Russian  Army 

BY  COL.  ROBERT  McCORMICK 


,  tut.,  fj.00 

This  book  deals  with  the  author's  experiences  in  the 
war  area.  The  work  traces  the  cause  of  the  war  from 
the  treaty  of  1878  through  the  Balkan  situation.  It 
contains  many  facts  drawn  from  personal  observation, 
for  Col.  McCormick  has  had  opportunities  such  as  have 
been  given  to  no  other  man  during  the  present  engage- 
ments. He  has  been  at  the  various  headquarters  and 
actually  in  the  trenches.  One  of  the  most  interesting 
chapters  of  the  volume  is  the  concluding  one  dealing 
with  great  personalities  of  the  war  from  first-hand 
acquaintance. 

The  work  contains  a  considerable  amount  of  material 
calculated  to  upset  generally  accepted  ideas,  compari- 
sons of  the  fighting  forces,  and  much  else  that  is  fresh 
and  original. 


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University  of  California 

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